Twin Sister of Freddie Gray: 'Please Stop the Violence'

The twin sister of Freddie Gray, whose death while in police custody prompted a week of protests in Baltimore City, spoke out Saturday night.

After hours of demonstrations that turned violent, Fredricka Gray asked citizens on behalf of her family to remain calm.

“...please, please stop the violence,” Fredricka Gray said at a press conference held by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie-Rawlings Blake. “Freddie Gray would not want this.“

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Added Fredricka Gray: “Violence does not get justice.”

Justice was what many demonstrators were claiming to seek, after 25-year-old Freddie Gray died in police custody from a spinal injury that has not yet been explained.

Six offers were suspended in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, and multiple investigations are underway—including by the Baltimore Police and U.S. Department of Justice.

Fredricka Gray’s brief remarks followed more than a dozen arrests downtown after a group of protestors broke windows, including at The Gallery shopping plaza near the Inner Harbor, according to Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts. Additionally, the commissioner said a group of juveniles looted a 7-Eleven on North Howard Street and had not been apprehended as of late Saturday night.

More than 1,200 police were in Baltimore City working to keep the peace, according to Batts, including officers from Prince George’s, Anne Arundel and Montgomery County police departments as well as Maryland State Police.

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“The vast majority of residents today did a good job” of expressing themselves without violence, Batts said. “It’s just a small number of people that felt they had to turn this into an ugly event, an ugly day.”

At least 95 percent of those who marched and demonstrated Saturday were peaceful, according to the mayor.

“Unfortunately, a small group of agitators intervened and turned what was otherwise a peaceful demonstration into a violent protest,” said Rawlings-Blake, something she said was “unacceptable to me and everyone who lives in Baltimore.”

Screenshot of Fredricka Gray from WJZ.