BALTIMORE — The middle-aged woman buried deep in a crowd of protesters near the intersection of North Fulton and West North Avenues held up a yellow sign with black lettering. One side issued a demand: “Stop the lethal force.” The other provided what could be seen as an ominous warning: “Pow pow you reap what you sow.”

All around, not far from the Gilmor Homes, the public housing development where Freddie Gray was arrested before suffering a spinal cord injury in police custody, the battle between chaos and calm raged.

Young men, some in surgical masks, pulled cases of water from a looted convenience store while peaceful protesters from 300 Men March, a local anti-violence group, tried to persuade women and children to go back inside after ambulances slowly moved through streets marked by burned or abandoned cars.