BALTIMORE -- A night of violence gave way to a day of mourning Sunday for a man who died after suffering serious injuries while in the custody of Baltimore police.
A steady stream of mourners filed for hours into the Vaughn Green East funeral home for a wake for Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died a week after an encounter with police left him with spinal injuries. In Gray's silk-draped, white coffin, he lay dressed in a white shirt, black pants, white sneakers and white Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap.
Above the lid to the coffin was a floral arrangement, and inside the lid was a pillow with a screen-printed picture of Gray flanked by doves and the quote, "Peace, Y'all" at the bottom edge.
Mourners also gathered outside. Some held up signs that read, "We remember Freddie" and "Our Hearts Are With The Gray Family."
Tina Covington, 46, said she did not know Gray but went to express her condolences to his family. She has a son near Freddie Gray's age.
"It hits home. It really does. It's a reality check," said Covington, whose son is 27. "There is something going on in the Police Department that needs to change."
Gray's funeral is planned for today.
In Washington, the White House said the head of President Barack Obama's initiative for young men of color would attend. Broderick Johnson, chairman of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force and a Baltimore native, is to represent the administration accompanied by two other officials, the White House said in a statement.
At a church service earlier Sunday, Pastor Jamal Bryant told the congregation at Empowerment Temple AME Church that "somebody is going to have to pay" for Gray's death.
Bryant told churchgoers, almost all of them black, that if "you're black in America, your life is always under threat." Bryant also addressed the violence that broke out Saturday night during what began as a peaceful demonstration attended by more than 1,000 people.
After services were over, Bryant, whose church will pay for Gray's funeral, met with the family. He said after the meeting that they don't want violence.
Bryant said marches and demonstrations would continue but that "violence never leads to justice."
Some 34 people were arrested, according to Baltimore Police Department, and six police officers suffered minor injuries.
On Sunday evening, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called during a televised news conference for protesters to be peaceful.
"At the end of the day we are one Baltimore. We need to support peaceful demonstration and continue to enforce in our communities that rioting, violence and looting will not be tolerated in our city," she said.
Roughly 1,200 protesters gathered at City Hall on Saturday afternoon, officials said, to protest Gray's death April 19, which has prompted near-daily demonstrations. Gray was arrested one week before that when officers chased him through a west Baltimore neighborhood and dragged him into a police van.
However, a smaller group splintered off Saturday and looted a convenience store and smashed storefront windows. A protester tossed a flaming metal garbage can toward a line of police officers in riot gear as they tried to push back the crowd. Earlier, a group of protesters smashed the windows of at least three police cars.
Also Sunday, J.M. Giordano -- a photo editor at Baltimore's City Paper -- said Baltimore police beat him as he covered one of the recent protests in west Baltimore.
A video posted to the newspaper's website Sunday shows at least two police officers in riot gear hitting and kicking Giordano as the person filming screams, "He's a photographer! He's press!"
Sait Serkan Gurbuz, a photographer with Reuters, said police detained him as he was photographing the scuffle.
A statement from Reuters said police also cited Gurbuz for failure to obey orders.
"We hope that the department will dismiss the citation and, going forward, respect the First Amendment right of the press to lawfully take images in the public interest," Reuters said.
Police acknowledged Friday that Gray should have received medical attention at the spot where he was arrested -- before he was put in a police transport van in handcuffs and without a seat belt, a violation of the Police Department's policy.
Gray was arrested after he made eye contact with officers and ran away, police said.
Officers held him down, handcuffed him and loaded him into the van. While inside, he became irate and leg cuffs were put on him, police have said.
Gray asked for medical help several times, beginning before he was placed in the van. After a 30-minute ride that included three stops, paramedics were called.
Authorities have not explained how or when Gray's spine was injured.
Information for this article was contributed by Amanda Lee Myers of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/27/2015