Freddie Gray funeral draws mournful throng in Baltimore

BALTIMORE — Thousands of mourners and supporters descended Monday on New Shiloh Baptist Church for the funeral of Freddie Gray, a young black man whose death while in police custody sparked daily and sometimes chaotic protests.

While the funeral was taking place, the Baltimore Police Department announced a "credible threat," saying a group of gangs had entered into a "partnership to 'take out' law enforcement officers."

The threat added to the tension that has gripped the city since Gray died April 19 after being critically injured a week earlier. He had suffered a severe spinal cord injury during or immediately after his arrest; it was not clear what caused the injury.

The funeral drew a packed house in the 2,300-seat church. Speakers included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who said Gray was a victim of inequality. He said Gray's poor, west side neighborhood needed investment, jobs and better housing.

"Why wasn't Fred's side of town developed?" Jackson asked. "Why can't the west side get what downtown gets?"

He cited 110 deaths at the hands of police since 2010. "Fred wasn't No. 1, he was number one-one-one," Jackson said.

"We are here because we feel threatened," Jackson said. "All of our sons are at risk."

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said justice was needed not just for Gray, but for everyone. He said too many young people are dying at the hands of police.

"I've often said that our children are the living messages we send to a future we will never see," Cummings said. "But now our children are sending us to a future they will never see. There's something wrong with that picture!"

He quoted the Bible: "Do you know what I want? I want justice, oceans of it. I want fairness, rivers of it. That's all. That's what Freddie wanted."

William Murphy, lawyer for the Gray family, told the throng that the "blue wall" of police solidarity had to be toppled.

"We wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for video cameras," Murphy said. "While the world watches, we have to step up to the plate as giants. Not as political midgets."

Murphy called for more black police officers, body cameras for officers and a special prosecutor "until the problem is solved."

Murphy told USA TODAY the family wants "justice for their son. And they want this to be a lesson that we learn in this country about how to be just and more effectively just."

Jamal Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore, told USA TODAY that Gray's family was "very fragile, very broken, very overwhelmed" by Gray's death.

"He was just an everyday person, had a loving girlfriend, a loving family, five beautiful sisters," Bryant told USA TODAY. "He was really trying to eke out for himself what was going to be the next chapter of his life. He was really going through his own rites of passage, trying to figure out manhood in a broken land of boy dreams."

After the funeral, Gray's long funeral procession rolled by Vanessa Singleton, who shouted: "No justice, no peace!"

Singleton explained that her son was killed by police in 2010 during what officer said was a break-in, she said.

"He was 26, the same age as Freddie Gray," Singleton said. "Nothing ever happened. I didn't even get a vigil, something to say my son was killed."

Bacon reported from McLean, Va.