The mayor of Baltimore said she does not know why government-run public transportation was shut down when riots broke out near a mall on the day of Freddie Gray’s funeral in April.
Some people, including local teachers, thought the shutdown, which was limited to the area near Mondawmin mall in west Baltimore, escalated demonstrations because the weekday afternoon closure made it more difficult for young people to get home from school.
Gray, 25, was arrested and suffered a spinal injury while being transported in a police van last April. He died one week later.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told the Baltimore Sun on Wednesday that she was not consulted about the decision, though she knew it was happening. She also said that she did not believe that it was a bad decision.
“There’s still some confusion about where the order came from,” Rawlings-Blake said. “It definitely came in real time from the ground at Mondawmin.”
The mall is a popular transfer spot for students but on the day of Gray’s funeral, it became the site of looting and riots. Young people were seen hurling bricks and bottles at police officers, whose cars were set on fire and smashed.
Rawlings-Blake called the rioters “thugs” and set a city-wide curfew for the following night.
Attempts to determine the party responsible for the transportation shutdown have been circular, even for city leaders – the Maryland Transit Administration said that the police asked for the shut down and the police have referred questions about the incident to the transportation agency.
“I remember trying to get to the bottom of it,” Rawlings-Blake said. “[The MTA] is saying schools said it. The schools say the police suggested we shut it down.”
City officials said they are conducting a review and trying to determine a better strategy in case they must respond to a similar situation in the future.
