Smashed, looted and burned by the mob: Inside the destruction of Baltimore as shopkeepers tell how they fled burning shops and one says he called police 50 times - and nobody came
Daylight in Baltimore brings chance for victims of the rioting to see how bad the damage isShop after shop has been burned out and pharmacies looted for drugs
Business owners tell Daily Mail Online how they fled for their lives and looters just took what they wanted
Gas station owner has lost $30,000 while another manager was told he would be murdered
Owner of a bar tells how his dream of coming to America to build a business has been shattered
Official count of damage is 15 buildings burned but there are no figures for how many were damaged and looted
By Daniel Bates In Baltimore For Dailymail.com and Ben Ashford In Baltimore For Dailymail.com
28 April 2015
The full extent of the damage done by the violence and rioting in Baltimore is graphically revealed today.
Dozens of shops, businesses and gas stations were burned and ransacked across the city as the streets were turned into a 'war zone'.
Shopkeepers told Daily Mail Online that they fled in terror as looters rampaged in as they were still inside - and stole everything.
A family of four had to flee their apartment above the liquor store they owned when it was set ablaze underneath them.
And a gas station owner said that he had lost $53,000 after his store was ransacked. An empty ATM was smashed open during the frenzy.
Rajneesh Nagpal, 39, was furious that he had called the police 50 times but nobody came to help him.
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Total destruction: The burned out remains of the CVS Pharmacy, on the corner of West North Ave and Pennsylvania Ave
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Clean up: A firefighter enters the CVS pharmacy which remains a dangerous structure. At the Keystone Pharmacy it became clear that drugs were looted and empty pill bottles left on the floor
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Ablaze: The scene last night as fire took hold of the CVS after it was looted - and as it was when it was part of the community
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Message:T he despair of one shopkeeper was spelled out on this message left on a looted store
He said: 'This is not protest. They're destroying their own community. I don't see any national guard. Nobody cares about us'.
The rioting started at the Mondawmin Mall in North West Baltimore on Monday hours after the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died a week after he was arrested by the city police.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake today that rioters sought out 'high-dollar' items and that not every store was hit.
The unrest spread south along Pennsylvania Avenue and as night fell the looters marauded through the city with reports of a pawn shop ablaze in the South West of Baltimore.
Even the East of the city appears to have been affected and a five-story community center that was still under construction was set ablaze, though it is not clear if this was related to the riots.
At the the Keystone Pharmacy on W North looters had gone through entire sacks of pill bottles and stripped all the shelves at the back of dozens of bottles of drugs.
Prescriptions lay scattered over the counter and the floor, showing off the names of the people who were supposed to come and pick them up.
Boxes were scattered everywhere and the looters had forced open the basement as they searched for more drugs.
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Spree: Looters had been from shop to shop in some streets leaving every shop smashed and emptied
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Community hubs: The E-Z Mart (left) on West North Fourth which was badly damaged, while (right) Rashad Kahn in front of his damaged grocery mart. he lost $25,000 of stock
A worker who was sweeping up outside the store, who declined to give his name, said: 'Everybody want something for nothing, they end up with nothing. Some of their parents probably come here to get their prescriptions'.
At the corner of North Fulton and W North witness said that the family who lived above the liquor store had to flee when looters set fire to the building beneath them.
Linda Knight, 45, who owns the Variety-N-Cellphone store with her husband Otis, said that she had been in business seven years but now it had 'all gone'.
She said: 'This shop is my life. It's destroyed, we've got nothing left.'
Next door Sung Kang, 49, described how he was inside his Oxford Tavern store and bar when the looters came in.
He said: 'I saw them coming so I closed the front door but they smashed the window and broke in.
'I was behind the counter and I was scared, very nervous. They didn't say anything to me, they just took what they wanted.'
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Asked how he felt, Mr Kang, a Korean immigrant, paused and said: 'Nothing. What can I say?
'This shop is everything I have. I used to work at Johns Hopkins but I wanted to run my own business so I opened this store a year ago. - it's my first business.
'This is America. I wanted to follow my dream and wanted to make something for myself'.
Another convenience store owner, Rashad Kahn, 49, said that he had lost $25,000 worth of stock.
Standing in front of a sign saying: 'We must stop killing each other', he said: 'I don't know what to say'.
A toxic smell hung on the air at the CVS on W North and Pennsylvania, which was one of the first buildings set ablaze.
Looters had stolen everything - from cereal to cleaning products.
This morning metal bars and lighting cables dangled from the ceiling and the floor and the walls were stained black from the smoke.
Resident Laquicha Harper, who was cleaning the sidewalk with a brush, said that she had felt 'compelled' to come down and help clean up.
The 33-year-old, who runs a mobile beauty salon, said: 'They didn't just destroy a community, they destroyed our community.
'Being a person of faith sometimes you have to get into the middle of the trench.
'That's what I'm doing, I've come down and I'm going to clean up my community. We will rebuild'.
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Lost: South Korean immigrant Sung Kang, 49, (right of picture) was inside his Oxford Tavern store and bar when the looters came in. 'They didn't say anything to me, they just took what they wanted. I opened this store a year ago. I wanted to follow my dream and wanted to make something for myself.'
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Hope: Sun Tang had left his job at Johns Hopkins to build the Oxford Tavern - seen before last night's violence - into a successful business but it was badly hit by the riots
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Gone: $30,000 is estimated as the bill for looting from and damage to Rajneesh Nagpal's gas station, where an ATM was busted open
Violence: The ATM at Ranjess Nagpal's gas station was busted open in a hunt for cash; it was empty. He estimates the total bill for looted goods and general damage at $30,000 to the site (as it was, right). Next door the BP manager ran for his life
Also among those sweeping up the streets was Husamiddin Osiruphuel, 61. He said: 'This is our city. We live here. We go to school here, we work here. This was totally unnecessary. This wasn't about people who cared about Baltimore. This was people who no meaning or purpose.'
His friend Hassan Amin, 62, said: 'What you saw last night was a different city. This is the real city here today'.
At his Quest gas station Mr Nagpal said that as the riots raged last night, he walked up to the police seven blocks away and asked for help.
He said: 'The lieutenant said they were busy but what were they doing? There was nobody to protect us. The rioters said they were guna burn this place down.
'I've called 911 ten times since 6am. Nothing. I've lost about $30,000 in total because they smashed the bulletproof glass - just because they wanted to grab cigarettes.
'The mayor let people do what they wanted. We are a busy gas station and we are the neighborhood store. We try to help everyone out.
'We're going to talk to our community people and close down all the gas stations. The BP guy next door was told that he had to leave or they would kill him. He ran for his life.'
The gas station manager Andrea Allen, 50, added: 'We couldn't get police to come. They didn't send any officers to help.
'We stressed that it was a gas station and the rioters were here but they sent no help. Even the alarm system was on the phone to them but they didn't come.
'One guy who was rioting was saying: I've got a big load of medicine' - he was bragging about the stuff he stole. I saw people speeding up the road to the mall to steal more stuff.
'When they came to us they said: 'You don't sell no gas, we guna blow you up. What could we do?'
Shop owner with no insurance watches her Baltimore store burn
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Destruction: This downtown 7-11 was left almost totally ransacked when a mob ran through it
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Pointless: The exterior of a damaged 7-11 and how it was before. Husamiddin Osiruphuel, 61, said: 'This is our city. We live here. We go to school here, we work here. This was totally unnecessary. This wasn't about people who cared about Baltimore.'
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Work to be done: As well as the burning and looting anti-police vandalism has been sprayed across parts of the city. On the streets today people whose neighborhoods were hit including Hassan Amin, left, and Husamiddin Osiruphuel were trying to clean up
As the rioters swept downtown towards the smart residential enclave of Mount Vernon they laid siege to family-run Ted's Musician Shop.
Fernando Roman, 64, got his first job there at the age of 13 after his Colombian family arrived in the US in the 1950s. He eventually took the shop over from previous owner Ted Martini, who had founded it the bustling, artsy neighborhood back in 1931.
Mr Roman was behind the counter at around 3.30pm Monday when a neighbor raced inside and shouted: 'They're coming, they're coming.'
'I closed up as quickly as I could and went next door to my apartment to get to safety,' he told Daily Mail Online.
'We could hear the commotion from inside. There must have been around 50 of them - they were thugs.
'They passed through pretty quickly so when the noise stopped we went to look at the shop. The windows were all smashed. They broke in and trashed the register. I don't know how much money was in there but they took everything.
'They smashed open the counters and took a couple of saxophones. These things are worth about $4,000 each - I've lost a lot of money.'
Mr Roman and his wife Nancy, 48, were able to board up the front of their store with old doors and plywood to prevent anyone else getting inside.
Today their shop floor is carpeted in shattered glass, their display cabinets are half-empty and the cash register lies uprooted on the floor.
'If it was my regular customers, no problems - but these are just young kids. They have no attachment to anything.
'They just want to destroy what others have built up. Where are their mothers, what are their families doing to stop this?'
Fernando's wife Nancy said she rang the police as the carnage was unfolding only to be told it wasn't a priority because nobody was hurt.
Two officers finally arrived at 9am Tuesday, only to refer the couple to their insurance company and suggest they log a crime report on the Baltimore Police Department website.
'Does someone have to die for them to come and protect us,' she said.
'This is the only place my husband has ever worked. It is his life. The instruments are very valuable. These little ones need to behave better. If they behave with respect the police will treat them with respect. This situation is very sad.'
Clean-up: Fernarndo and Nancy Roman at Ted's Music, their family business in E Centre Street. The mob stole saxophones worth $4,000 after he fled to his apartment for safety
Vandalized: The looters smashed open the counters at Ted's Music and left its owner, Fernarndo Torres, facing the loss of money and the need to clean up today. He said he will get his business back on its feet.
Shopkeeper dragged from store and beaten during Baltimore riots
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Tony Harrison, owner of Nate & Tony's Midtown BBQ & Brew, took extreme steps to protect his bar further along East Center Street. Mr Harrison and two burly friends stood guard outside - equipped with a baseball bat, a stick and six-year-old South African mastiff Sascha.
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Back to business: Nate & Tony's being repaired after a window was smashed. It escaped the worst of the damage because Tony Harrison (right) guarded it with two friends, a baseball bat, a stick and six-year-old South African mastiff Sascha
Tony Harrison, owner of Nate & Tony's Midtown BBQ & Brew, took more extreme steps to protect his bar further along East Center Street. Mr Harrison and two burly friends stood guard outside - equipped with a baseball bat, a stick and six-year-old South African mastiff Sascha.
'We meant business - we wouldn't have been there if we didn't,' a defiant Mr Harrison, 53, told Daily Mail Online.
'I had the news on in the bar in the afternoon and was watching what was going on at Mondawmin. 'My contacts told me they were coming down to Mount Vernon for a "purge" - that's the word they used, just like the film.
'When I saw the rioters break through the police lines on TV I knew I couldn't guarantee the safety of my staff so I sent them home.
'I checked on my family then got ready to wait it out. I had protect "my house" as we call it here because the police weren't here to do it.
'They were out there protecting City Hall of course, but not here'
It was only when Mr Harrison and his two sentries stood down in the early evening to check on their families that the vandals struck, smashing the bar's front window.
'For the most part it was like a ghost town,' he said. 'When some kids finally came through they smashed the window. I think they were checking to see if we had an alarm
'At that stage I had left briefly to check on my wife and six-year-old daughter. We're lucky though, the damage wasn't too bad.
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Appetite for destruction: This Italian cafe on Park Avenue was boarded up today after last night's violence
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More damage: These businesses in central Baltimore were also badly hit as the mob rampaged through the city
'The whole front of the bar has been reinforced but if its gets dicey today I'll have to close up.'
Mr Harrison was scathing about the city's response to the violence, blaming Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for failing to declare a State of Emergency earlier in the day. 'She's inexperienced and she's afraid,' he said.
'She should have realized she was outmanned and outgunned and asked for help. She needs to grow a set of balls if she's going to run this city. The police were afraid they would be accused of brutality.
'It's a shame because a couple of bad apples always seem to be able to reverse years of good work. The officers did a brave job but from what I heard they were told they couldn't draw their weapons or use aggression - and you can't police a riot with kid gloves.
'If the mayor had declared it an emergency sooner and let the National Guard and the other resources come in, this could have been avoided.
'But in the end it was just left to me, a couple of my guys - and Sascha.'
As the day wore on rioters headed towards Baltimore's Inner Harbor, with banks of officers prepared to stop them from trashing the historic seaport and tourism spot.
The violence petered out there by nightfall but hotels drafted in extra security and urged guests to get inside behind locked doors.
The gangs ignored more obvious targets en route such as banks and glitzy hotels, instead ransacking convenience stores and independent businesses such as the Cafe Poupon in North Charles Street.
Megan McCarthy, a 31-year-old graphic designer, spent the night out of town when she heard the city was 'getting crazy'. She headed out with a camera early today to document the vandalism.
'I took one look at the place and I thought, I don't need a camera, I need a broom,' she said. 'I've been sweeping up glass all morning. 'It's absolutely heart-breaking to see your favorite restaurants and neighborhood haunts like this. It's just a mess.
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Volunteer: Megan McCarthy left town last night to get away from the violence and returned today to help clean up. 'I love Cafe Poupon, the staff are so friendly, what have they done to deserve this?' she said
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Restaurants hit: N Charles Street which is home to a series of cafes and restaurants. They had windows smashed and were ransacked as the mob swept through in daylight
Streets of Baltimore left in chaos after long night of riots
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