Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Baltimore woman now jobless and homeless after rioting mobs burned CVS where she worked, then torched her home — even after she begged them not to

 
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
 
Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 3:41 PM

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JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

New York Daily News reporter Edgar Sandoval with Katrice Gardner in the aftermath of the riots in Baltimore. Gardner lost her home and her job in the same night.

In one night of mayhem Katrice Gardner lost her home, her job — and nearly her life.
And when dawn broke Tuesday, the 30-year-old Baltimore woman said she couldn’t understand why the mob that battled the police all night firebombed her house and reduced the CVS where she worked as a manager to ashes.
“I was yelling at them, pleading at them not to burn my house," Gardner, 30, said outside her boarded-up rowhouse. “They had set the houses around me on fire. They were throwing stuff into the house. They were throwing Molotov's and very flammable stuff. All I could do was beg them not to burn my house."
Firefighters enter a CVS that was burned down following clashes after the funeral of Freddie Gray on Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2015 in Baltimore.JAMES KEIVOM/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Firefighters enter a CVS that was burned down following clashes after the funeral of Freddie Gray on Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2015 in Baltimore.

Gardner said she — like most African-Americans in Baltimore — is deeply upset about the death of Freddie Gray, allegedly at the hands of police.
But Gardner said she didn’t recognize the people who starting lobbing bricks at cops and looting businesses after Gray’s funeral on Monday.
“These guys aren't from here, they go from place to place causing trouble,” she said. “This doesn't accomplish anything. This is our neighborhood."
Baltimore police officers stand guard outside the CVS pharmacy Gardner worked at after it was looted and set blaze in west Baltimore.
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  • Baltimore police officers stand guard outside a CVS pharmacy after it was looted and set blaze in west Baltimore after the funeral of Freddie Gray in Maryland April 28, 2015. Baltimore erupted in violence on Monday as hundreds of rioters looted stores, burned buildings and at least 15 police officers were injured following the funeral of Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died after suffering a spinal injury in police custody. The riots broke out blocks from where the funeral of Gray took place and spread through much of west Baltimore. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
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  • epa04723455 A CVS pharmacy is seen on fire after being looted, behind a line of police and a line of protesters as protests of the death of Freddie Gray continue, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 27 April 2015. Freddie Gray died 19 April from a spinal injury sustained while in police custody. Gray's death has sparked protests that led to clashes with police and arrests of dozens of people over the weekend. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS
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  • epaselect epa04723489 Police stand by a CVS that was on fire as firefighters arrive to fight the blaze, during a protest for the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 27 April 2015. Gray died of spinal cord injuries on 19 April while in police custody; the US Justice Department announced that they are launching their own investigation into the case. EPA/NOAH SCIALOM
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ADREES LATIF/REUTERS

Baltimore police officers stand guard outside the CVS pharmacy Gardner worked at after it was looted and set blaze in west Baltimore.

Gardner, who is married, said she now has no place to live and no place to work.
"I can't live in my house while it gets renovated and the place where I work got burned down,” she said. “I don't have a home and a place to work. This is a lot of calamity."
Violent standoff between Freddie Gray protesters and police in Baltimore.
Violent standoff between Freddie Gray protesters and police in Baltimore.
Violent standoff between Freddie Gray protesters and police in Baltimore.
Violent standoff between Freddie Gray protesters and police in Baltimore.
VIEW GALLERYViolent standoff between Freddie Gray protesters and police in Baltimore
Tony Banks, 48, said the destruction makes him sad, but he understands why the young men in the West Baltimore section lashed out violently against the police.
"This isn't just about Freddie Gray,” he said. “There have been a lot of Freddie Grays in this neighborhood. It's been going on for years. You have to look past Freddie Gray. Past last week. You need to look back 10 years."
Banks said many residents fear the six officers suspended after Gray died under suspicious circumstances on April 19 will never be charged with a crime.
Young children sweep up the area outside the CVS Pharmacy on Tuesday, as the community tries to begin its cleanup from Monday's rioting.
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  • Young children sweep up the area outside the CVS Pharmacy in Baltimore, Maryland, April 28, 2015, that was set on fire during rioting last night. Riot police and National Guard troops stood guard on the smouldering streets of Baltimore Tuesday after protesters incensed by the death of a young black man in police custody went on the rampage, torching cars and buildings and looting stores. Fires continued to burn in the mainly black northeastern city, where a curfew was set to take effect Tuesday evening after a day of riots that dragged on into Monday night. The state of Maryland declared a state of emergency after rioters ransacked shops, making off with armloads of merchandise. Schools were closed Tuesday a safety measure. AFP PHOTO/JIM WATSONJIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
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  • Members of the community work to clean up a recently looted and burned CVS store in Baltimore, Maryland, United States April 28, 2015. The day after rioters tore through Baltimore, the city's mayor was criticized on Tuesday for a slow police response to some of the worst U.S. urban unrest in years after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said he had called Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake repeatedly Monday but that she held off calling in the National Guard until three hours after violence first erupted. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
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  • epa04724482 The inside of a burned CVS at the intersection of North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue in the wake of protests for the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 28 April 2015. Gray died of spinal cord injuries on 19 April while in police custody; the US Justice Department announced that they are launching their own investigation into the case. EPA/NOAH SCIALOM
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JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Young children sweep up the area outside the CVS Pharmacy on Tuesday, as the community tries to begin its cleanup from Monday's rioting.

"People feel these officers never get indicted,” he said. “The police do a lot and get away with it."
Bishop Douglas Miles, of Koinonia Baptist Church, said West Baltimore has always had a complicated relationship with the city's leaders.
Baltimore Riots Leave City Devastated, Buildings Ruined
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"This part of the city is neglected,” he said. “Forty years of neglect. There are few after school programs for kids. They don't know where to go. It's a community under siege by the ills of society. We have high incarceration rates. High crime. High rates of addiction."
No wonder, said Miles, people are fed up.
"We tell the mayor, just come here,” he said. “Just come listen to the people."
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