Two arrested after scuffles outside the western district police station as tensions simmer over the death in custody of 25-year-old black man

Tensions continued to simmer in West Baltimore on Wednesday night as hundreds of protesters once again congregated at the western district police station, briefly tussling with officers and attempting to cross police lines while calling for justice in the wake of 25-year-old Freddie Gray’s death in custody.



The assembled crowds, while smaller than protests at the same location last night, were notably more combative. Baltimore police officers, who were standing behind metal barriers and concrete road blocks erected at the intersection before the station, were occasionally pelted with plastic bottles and regularly goaded by protesters.



Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) Tussles with police. Bottles being thrown https://t.co/zwpsghLbwi

At one point, as some in the crowd attempted to climb over the barriers, two young protesters were arrested.

After one lieutenant was doused in water from a bottle hurled from the crowd, five officers on horseback arrived from behind the station and positioned themselves around five yards from the police front line.



“I see they got the horses. All they need to do is bring the dogs out,” shouted one protester on a bullhorn. “Is this Baltimore, Maryland, or Selma, Alabama? Is this Baltimore or apartheid South Africa?”



The lieutenant, whose name badge read C Thompson, bore much of the protesters’ goading and was later struck by a box of fried chicken thrown from somewhere in the crowd.



Freddie Gray died last Sunday, a week after he was arrested by Baltimore police officers. His neck was broken at some point in the immediate aftermath of the arrest.

Senior city officials have acknowledged a delay in providing medical assistance after he was placed in a police van. Six officers involved in the arrest have been suspended, with only five of them so far providing their account of the incident to investigators.



Protesters have congregated in West Baltimore since Gray’s death, with over 1,000 taking to the streets on Tuesday.



City councilman Nick Mosby, who represents West Baltimore’s district seven, has been present at each protest. On Wednesday evening he said that dissatisfaction and anger among residents continued to grow.



“Day by day there is more,” he told the Guardian. “At this point people are tired and angry.”



Baltimore police have said they will deliver the findings of their investigation into Gray’s death by 1 May. The federal department of justice is also investigating the incident to probe for civil rights violations.



Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake expressed frustration with the progress of the city investigation during a TV interview on Tuesday. On Wednesday a spokesman acknowledged that “there are questions that people still have”. He told the Baltimore Sun: “We know the best people to answer those questions are the people who are there. We want everyone involved with Mr Gray to cooperate.”



On Wednesday the Guardian reported court records indicating the senior officer involved in Gray’s arrest had engaged in an alleged “pattern of intimidation and violence”, which led to a temporary restraining order being granted in 2013.

Protests on Wednesday evening continued as smaller groups marched on the city centre, temporarily shutting down traffic on some intersections.

The protests outside the police station were attended by a variety of local groups including members of the Nation of Islam, grassroots campaign groups and local churches.

One small group of church members sang hymns as they walked towards the station. They were addressed by Pastor Alfreda Wiggins of the St Luke Methodist Church one block from the station.



“We are grieving because of the death of Freddie Gray,” Wiggins said. “But it has brought us out together. If there is no justice, there will be no peace. Amen.”



Corey Smith, 25, said he was a former classmate of Gray’s and had known him for 18 years.

“He was a good guy,” said Smith. “He’d have felt loved to know these people had come out in his name. I just wish he was here.”

Before Wednesday night’s protests Baltimore’s powerful police union, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No.3 likened the actions of the protesters to a “lynch mob”.

“While we appreciate the right of our citizens to protest and applaud the fact that, to date, the protests have been peaceful, we are very concerned about the rhetoric of the protests,” the FOP said in a statement.

“In fact the images that seen on television look and sound much like a lynch mob in that they are calling for the immediate imprisonment of these officers without them ever receiving the due process that is the Constitutional right of every citizen, including law enforcement officers.”

Protests were scheduled to continue on Thursday with a rally outside Baltimore City Hall at 3pm and another rally at the Western District Police Station at 5pm.