Baltimore rioters target stores, beat photographer

Donna Leinwand Leger | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Baltimore shaken by violence, destruction Residents of Baltimore are dealing with the damage left behind by rioters who looted stores and set buildings on fire after Freddie Gray was laid to rest. Gray suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody.

BALTIMORE – Gangs of looters, some armed with crowbars, roamed an increasingly lawless city Monday, smashing windows, stealing sneakers and beating a photographer who dared to take their photos.

Looters operated with impunity, sometimes within half a block of dozens of police in riot gear.

In downtown near the Lexington Market, a popular shopping destination, dozens of police appeared on the scene after gangs ravaged the market and other local stores. On Lexington Street, looters smashed windows of the Your City, My City shoe store, grabbing boxes of sneakers and athletic gear and leaving a trail of broken mannequins on the sidewalk.

A few doors down, at the Police Foundation offices, another line of police in riot gear stood guard. They remained standing even as a call went out about a dozen people around the corner who broke into a shoe store and emerged from an alley with armloads of boxes.

Seeing Baltimore Sun photographer Christopher Assaf kneeling in the street, his camera raised, they shouted at him to stop taking the photograph. The crowd converged on him. When he tried to run, a man in a gray hoodie tripped him. As he lay sprawled on the ground, his cameras broken, the men punched him in the back of the head and kicked him in the face as he screamed for help. By the time a police officer came, the assailants were gone.

In the Upton area, looters wiped a CVS store clean of goods, even taking the shelving, before setting the store on fire.

"I think it's dumb. It's senseless. What are they rioting for," said Chappelle Johnson, 48, who wasn't allowed to cross police lines to get back to the recovery house where he is staying while on probation for dealing drugs.

"The thing that gets me, why are you burning your own neighborhood? Go downtown," Johnson said. "They are burning the only pharmacy we got. It's a damn shame."

The Mondawmin Mall, where city redevelopment authorities had worked for years to bring Target, Ross Dress for Less, Payless Shoes and other chains, closed early to prepare for the anticipated riots. Still, looters broke into the shops. At Deals, a variety story, looters had broken two windows and made off with merchandise before 30 police with armored cars and riot gear arrived. A police helicopter hovered overhead. By 8 p.m., police has established a presence and chased away the looters.