'No Accountability, No Justice': Clashes Erupt as Mourners Gather for Freddie Gray Funeral

Thousands came together in Baltimore on Monday for the funeral of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man whose brutal death in police custody sparked civil rights protests throughout the city last week.

Gray’s funeral brought in members of his family and community to the 2,500-capacity New Shiloh Baptist church, where they mourned alongside civil rights leaders and activists, including Rev. Jesse Jackson and Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, who was killed by police last year in New York when he was put into a chokehold.

The persevering message of months of protests throughout the country was clear at the memorial service, with a projector illuminating the words “Black Lives Matter” on a wall above Gray’s casket.

Garner told the Associated Press that she decided to attend the funeral after seeing a video of Gray’s arrest, in which officers dragged and threw the young man into a police van while he screamed in pain. During a 30-minute ride which included three stops, Gray’s spinal cord was severed. He died a week later on April 19.

Garner said the footage was reminiscent of her father’s death, also caught on tape, showing him being placed into a chokehold and dragged to the ground by police officers as he shouted, “I can’t breathe.”

“It’s like there is no accountability, no justice,” she said. “It’s like we’re back in the ’50s, back in the Martin Luther King days. When is our day to be free going to come?”

Bill Murphy, an attorney for Gray’s family, spoke at the funeral and called for the six Baltimore police officers who were involved in Gray’s death to tell the public what happened—remarks which drew a standing ovation, the AP reports. The officers have been suspended, but activists have called for them to face criminal charges.