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Interfaith Rally On-Going in Baltimore; Protests by Ethiopian- Jews Turn Violent; Mayor Lifts Baltimore Curfew; Three Baltimore Women in the Spotlight. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired May 03, 2015 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:15] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. Thanks for so much joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, live in Baltimore. We are in the midst of an interfaith rally here at the steps of city hall right outside this plaza. This is just hours after the mayor lifted the city-wide curfew and the governor announced National Guard troops are starting to draw down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R), MARYLAND: We have already started the withdrawal of the guard. The trucks are pulling out this morning. It's going to take a little bit of a while. We brought in 4,000 people this week to keep the city safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Athena Jones and Nick Valencia are here in Baltimore. Let's begin with Nick, who is right there in the crowd, dozens of people. You got a chance to hear first hand what the governor had to say.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, the governor spoke at a press conference two hours ago going into detail about the unwinding, he says, of the National Guard. We still do see, Fredericka, a presence here even around city hall. That is expected to change in the coming days. No realtime table given for just how long it will take for every National Guard troop to be out of Baltimore, but members of this community say until that happens, won't really feel like things are back to normal.

Back here at the lawn in city hall this interfaith rally has been under way for about an hour. We are joined with one of the fathers, local Father Joe, popular priest here. Father, interfaith community is out in full force. People that even are not religious have showed up here to show their support. What do you think so far?

FATHER JOE MUTH, PASTOR: Well, I think this rally is a good beginning, but I think we really have to start from scratch, like some of the people are talking about today. Many people in the city, from the organization build to social workers and health care workers have been predicting the underground trouble that we have had for a number of years and now it's broken open as a result of the Freddie Gray incident, we have to go back to relationship building in our communities and in our streets across cultural lines, racial lines, economic lines to really find this One Baltimore that people are talking about - people say it's there, but we need to see evidence of it.

VALENCIA: We always wonder, as a national media, we come into your cities and into your hometown and eventually, the cameras do leave. What happens in this situation when the cameras leave, the local news crews go on to another story?

MUTH: Yes, well, you have a lot of stories to cover and we want the cameras to leave, because we have work to do. And we got to get back to work and we can't deal with all this media attention. We have detailed relationship building to do and our communities and our neighborhoods and this is helpful for temporary attention, but it distracts us from the work we need to get to do.

VALENCIA: When does this work start, Father Joe? What do you measure that by? What do you mean?

MUTH: Well, the work hopefully begins this week that either the churches that are here today, the religious communities here today we get to call people together in the communities, and we find people from the political, religious, social work community coming together to address the issues that need to be addressed.

VALENCIA: And it appears that is the kind of crowd that we have here today. If you just want to walk with me a little - thank you very much, Father Joe. Just want to walk with me a little bit here. You can see the crowd, a very diverse crowd, and this is sort of the theme that we've seen the last 48 hours here in the city of Baltimore, members from both inside the community, outside the community, all walks of life and here at this specific rally, people from all backgrounds and all faiths. Fredericka?

WHITFIELD: All right. A very similar description from the crowds that we saw yesterday, but the tone quite different on this Sunday. A lot more spiritual-based celebration of the life of Freddie Gray today.

Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: All right. A mall in West Baltimore damaged in Monday's riots just reopened today. CNN's Athena Jones is at the Mon Dowman Mall, and that's where the mayor was today, to announce that she was lifting the city-wide curfew and also said this mall is open for business.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. That's right. It's open for business. It's not just that this mall was looted during the violent and unrest on Monday night. This area was the beginning of all that destruction and violence that we saw Monday afternoon.

So, it is an important symbol to see this mall reopened as Baltimore continues to return to normal. Let's play what's - Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had to say here when she came here earlier today. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, BALTIMORE: This is just great day for this community to have the mall reopened, just a wonderful day. I was proud to support the investments that, I think it was the Baltimore Development Corporation made into this mall to do the major renovations and to see it bounce back so quickly just gives me a lot of optimism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:05:02] JONES: So here we have the mayor talking about optimism and about the mall bouncing back quickly, but I have got to tell you, Fred, it maybe bouncing back but it's not doing so overnight. We walked inside. There are clear signs of damage. There are windows that were broken that are now boarded up. There was a jewelry store that was still closed because all of the display cases had been ruined, ransacked.

We talked to a store owner who has spent three days cleaning up. He says he lost at least $100,000 in merchandise when looters came through his store on Monday. He watched the live feed on another site and was heartbroken watching people come in and steal the goods out of his store. So he is just now reopening after the spending three days cleaning up.

So, it's going to take a while for everyone to get - for things to get back to normal truly, but it's still a good sign to see the doors reopened, to see people going about their usual business on a Sunday, as these stores and this community tries to get back to normal. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Athena Jones, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

All right, for more on the investigation into the case now, I want to bring in Justin George. He is a writer for the "Baltimore Sun." And on the front page of the "Baltimore Sun" today, and also at their dotcom site, they have got an exclusive look inside the Freddie Gray investigation.

And Justin, in your report, you talk about how the city really was blindsided by the announcement from the prosecutor while they were in the midst of going through drills about how to handle suspects or better practices in the way in which Baltimore Police conduct themselves.

JUSTIN GEORGE, "BALTIMORE SUN" WRITER: Yes, the police department, which I was embedded with, was doing quite a bit of investigating and still had quite a bit left before they were shocked when Marilyn Mosby announced the charges.

WHITFIELD: And what was the most shocking thing about that, especially once they heard the charges? You described in the article that I read this morning how there was silence when they watched the prosecutor and they were simply stunned by what they were hearing.

GEORGE: Yes, I think because they were still investigating and quite a bit more to do, they were just surprised by the suddenness of it all. Again, the case file from Baltimore Police had only been turned over to the state's attorney's office several hours before, literally on Thursday. I think they were just caught completely flat footed.

Now, on the merit of the charges, you know, the officers didn't really discuss specific charges, they were going to leave that up to the state's attorney's office. But I do as I wrote today that they were focusing on mostly on the wagon driver and not so much on the other officers, though I do think they were gathering information on everybody.

WHITFIELD: And everything including the takedown, because on your front page - on the front page of your newspaper, you also have the image of an officer with handcuffs, being handcuffed and there was a doctor that was present.

So, at that time, have the doctor been advising, this is the safest way, don't do this, because they - it might promote injury? What was happening in that moment when that photograph was taken during your investigation?

GEORGE: No, it was actually quite the opposite. Even though the task force was pretty confident that the injuries to Freddie Gray took place in the van, they wanted to exhaust every sort of possibility that it may have happened at another time, it may have happened during the arrest or some other point during the wagon route and in that case, they actually were demonstrating the leg lace maneuver that Freddie Gray was put in right when he was arrested.

What they did was try to simulate that and then also apply pressure, different points of pressure and had this orthopedic doctor look and see if that could cause some of the injuries that Freddie Gray sustained and the doctor's prognosis was essentially, what he said, was that it was impossible for him to sustain the injuries from that leg lace, even if they were standing on him or slamming him or sticking their knees here his buttocks or his back.

So that was just part of the investigation in order to see whether they should include that as a possibility of how Freddie Gray got injured or if they should rule it out.

WHITFIELD: At the same time, where there any pointed discussions between city officials and that orthopedic doctor to talk about the possibilities of larynx being crushed or the spinal cord being snapped, especially since even before the prosecutor came out in a press conference, it had already been expressed by the family attorneys that doctors believed that he had sustained those kinds of injuries?

[16:10:00] GEORGE: No, you know, he was pretty much focused on just that extent. As far as the other parts, those were studied when they were looking at the autopsy. They spoke to the medical examiner's office, not just once, but twice. They went to Maryland Shock Trauma, the hospital where Freddie Gray was brought in. I was with them, just outside, as they were talking to the doctors and I think those sort of things were discussed there, but this specific drill was just to see if the - again, the different techniques of restraint during his arrest could have resulted in the injuries that Freddie Gray sustained.

WHITFIELD: And you are a persuasive reporter, but I wonder, Justin, why do you believe they allowed you into something that really is a very private meeting between city officials as they are just on the eve of being thrust into a major case?

GEORGE: I think the police department was reeling. I mean, I think that they were having trouble connecting with the public and they wanted the public to trust them and know that this - that situation would be done intensely and objectively to the best of their ability. And I think one thing they thought was having a reporter on board and it certainly is something that we have been, you know, wanted to be part of.

And I think that was the goal of Baltimore Police, was to show the public, we are trying to be as transparent as possible.

WHITFIELD: Justin George of the "Baltimore Sun." Thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it. It is a fascinating read.

All right, next, more on the Freddie Gray death investigation. Did it play out like it was supposed to or were mistakes made?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A spiritual, jubilant feel in Baltimore today, on this Sunday. The city's curfew had been lifted but there is still a long way to go in this legal process, hinging on a massive investigation into Freddie Gray's death. All this, the backdrop right today is an interfaith rally here at city hall.

[16:15:00] Joining me right now to talk more about these investigations and how it led to these charges, CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, HLN's legal analyst, Joey Jackson.

So discovery that the public made is that as a result of the Freddie Gray's death and the police investigation there is a city investigation and then when we heard from the state's attorney, she had her own separate investigation, even called upon other independent players.

How typical is this, from your experience, Tom, that the city would be blindsided or feel like it didn't know of a separate investigation being taken place?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I'm not sure how blindsided they were, Fredericka. I think it's common that you would just have -

WHITFIELD: We just heard from the reporter who apparently was with the city investigators.

FUENTES: I took it more that the announcement and the timing might have been something they weren't expecting but the actual - you know, the separate investigations by Baltimore City homicide detectives and Baltimore sheriff's office and the state's attorney investigators, they are not going to interview exact same witnesses three separate times, they're going to be monitoring, looking at the investigation.

WHITFIELD: So you are saying they should presume at all times that there are others who are investigating as well?

FUENTES: Absolutely. Sure.

WHITFIELD: Before there are charges or even before any kind of action.

FUENTES: Exactly. And also it's not uncommon then to have the FBI come behind all of that with a civil rights investigation. You have multiple agencies from the beginning and I think that the desire for Baltimore City Police to be transparent and invite a reporter in, that's highly unusual. But -

WHITFIELD: It is.

FUENTS: Having this much attention on a particular investigation is highly unusual. This has almost turned into a - you know, just a - like would you have in a presidential assassination or something, just the number of people, the speed that they are working, the number of prosecutors on it and then the federal government still behind that, able to come in and make it so.

WHITFIELD: Yes, because the microcosm of what's happening across the country and that is in large part why it has become such a high profile case. So let's talk about the potential pitfalls that come with these many investigations, that means some of the same witnesses might be interviewed, some of the same evidence may be reviewed, so, at what risk does this come when you have so many eyes, so many hands on all this material, that might find its way in court?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a great point, Fredericka. It's a great question to ask. Interestingly enough, the other investigation may be the defense attorneys investigating and just, the civil attorneys at least in terms of the family, and then, you know, the police's investigation in term of when they get the information. But what happens is whenever you have multiple investigations, what you then do is you have multiple witnesses, who could be saying multiple things at multiple times.

WHITFIELD: Do people naturally kind of forget details of their story?

JACKSON: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Does it naturally happen - they tell it over and over again?

JACKSON: Yes. And no. WHITFIELD: Some are being intentional.

JACKSON: Well, here's what happened.

WHITFIELD: There might be and then others - might (INAUDIBLE) -

JACKSON: Here's how we use (INAUDIBLE) defense attorneys in court. If there's any prior inconsistency, now two things, Fredericka, it could be true that we all may not say the same thing the same way twice. But there's a difference -

WHITFIELD: It's the same person, sometimes there's intimidation, right?

JACKSON: But the difference between not saying the same thing twice and potentially exaggerating or omitting information or embellishing information and I think that's what we'll see. Remember, there is a major process here and when the police are prosecuted, presuming there is an indictment, presuming of course, the jury is empaneled, the matter goes forward and there's not pleas of guilty, which I don't suspect. The attorneys will have all this information at their disposal. And what they'll attempt to do was to use any inconsistency to the advantage of their client, you know, as it were.

WHITFIELD: And we heard the prosecutor say the investigation is not over, just because there have been charges, there are still some investigating. So I wonder from police officers, experienced law enforcement officers, you know, point of view, will Baltimore Police also continue to conduct its own investigation or will that be left to the defense attorneys representing those officers?

FUENTES: No, they will leave it to the defense attorney, the prosecution side, which includes Baltimore City, Baltimore sheriffs and the state's attorney's office investigators, they will all continue to be working on it - there's still many questions that have to be answered and that goes right through to the trial time.

But getting back to your multiple witness statements, you know, in court, I have seen this so many times, where the attorney on cross- examination tells the witness, isn't it true on November 1st you told this officer this and on November 15th, you told the grand jury under oath this and it's not the same?

Then you made three statements and they don't match exactly. So, it does just create an appearance of inconsistency and possibly untruthfulness.

WHITFIELD: So, here's a possible quandry. City investigators, who are they looking for? They are looking for information that will support these police officers or they are looking for information that will support the prosecutor's investigation?

[16:20:00] JACKSON: It depends on who's investigating. The defense attorneys, when they investigate for the police, are going to be looking for those things which are going to be helpful to their clients. The prosecutor, of course is going to be looking for damning or incriminating things against the police.

Remember why you have multiple investigations, because of issues of trust. I can't trust the city investigation, says the state. The city, why is the state investigating? We have the investigation. Defense attorneys, I don't trust any of your investigation and then to Tom's point with the FBI, the federal government wants to come in and look at in terms of rights violations, we're going to do our independent investigation.

So, it's all about the trust and integrity of the investigation as we move forward.

WHITFIELD: It really is a long road.

JACKSON: Yes, it is.

FUENTES: You do have the issue also of doctors, surgeons tried to save Freddie's life in the hospital.

WHITFIELD: You think they will be asked to be part of the interview.

FUENTES: They're the ones that saw the condition of the neck and the cervical spine and the vertebrae and the voice box, before they worked on him. When the medical examiner's look at the body a week or two weeks later, it's been tampered with, for good reason, by the doctors, not evidence tampering, but the point of fact is, it is not the same body that arrived at the hospital.

JACKSON: It's been naturally altered based on the natural course of events.

WHITFIELD: All right. Tom Fuentes, Joey Jackson, thanks so much. Gentlemen, fantastic.

All right, we will have much more from Baltimore. It is very quiet now because, again this is an interfaith rally taking place here on the plaza outside city hall and there is prayer on this Sunday. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:25:05] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will head back to our live coverage in Baltimore in just a few minutes.

But first this out of Israel. Peaceful protests have turned violent on the streets of Tel Aviv. This after video surfaced showing a police officer striking an Ethiopian-Israeli soldier. Police say 20 officers have been injured and one protester arrested.

Joining me live now on the phone from Tel Aviv is CNN's Oren Liebermann. Oren, tell us what happened.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Both of those numbers, those 20 policemen injured and one arrested may very much change as the evening goes on because this was a peaceful protest when it began a few hours ago. It has since become a violent protest. Clashes between demonstrators and police. It has moved or is now in Tel Aviv's central Robbins Square and this is where this has become violent, that's where we have seen cars with windows smashed, police trying to disperse the crowd using a number of different means.

They have officers on horses in there, they are also using dispersal water and we are even hearing reports that officers have fired tear gas into the crowd to try to get them to disperse. As of the last update, which wasn't all that long ago, probably about 20 minutes, police are still dealing with hundreds of protesters.

Now, this all started about a week ago, when a video went viral showing two Israeli police officers beating an Ethiopian-Israel uniformed soldier. That immediately went viral here in Israel. And there was a lot of tension, a lot of simmering tension in the Ethiopian Jewish community. Many in that community said they've always felt like second-class citizens since they came to Israel about 20 or 30 years ago that has boiled over since that video went viral.

There was a protest on Thursday night in Jerusalem. This was bigger. Today's protest, Sunday's protest, was much bigger. It started peacefully about seven hours ago, seven or eight hours ago, at this point, when protesters blocked off many of the roads in Tel Aviv, in central Tel Aviv.

At that point, both police and protesters were showing a tremendous amount of restraint. There were some confrontations there, but it didn't turn violent. Police were holding themselves back and protesters were doing the same, making sure that they didn't cross the line. They then moved toward Robbins Square and that's where this escalated into the violent and the damage that we are seeing now. That's where the latest stands.

Again, the latest numbers we have, 20 police injured, one arrested. We very much expect those to change as we get more information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Oren what more do we know about that video that you said went viral and which see these protests spring up? What more do we know about where that came from?

LIEBERMANN: So that video came from just south of Tel Aviv, southern Tel Aviv has a large Ethiopian-Jewish community, it's very much seen as being less socioeconomically advantaged, essentially, a poorer community than the rest of Tel Aviv, which is a very of affluent city and that has created its own simmering tension, as for the people in the video, the soldier will meet tomorrow with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as a number of leaders in the Ethiopian community and leaders in government.

The first police officer in that video has been fired and there is an investigation. So, certainly more of this story to come as everything evolves from all sides on this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we will continue to cover that story out of Tel Aviv. Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv, thank you so much.

Next, we will go live back to our coverage in Baltimore. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:32] WHITFIELD: Hello, everyone, thanks so much for joining me, I'm Fredricka Whitfield reporting live from Baltimore. You are hearing the noise behind me. There is prayer going on this Sunday at the interfaith rally here at city hall. Just four hours ago or so, Baltimore's mayor lifted a city-wide curfew and over the next two or three days, we understand Maryland's governor says the national guard will be departing and we understand, momentarily, the Baltimore police department will be holding a press conference four hours after the lifting of that curfew. Perhaps more detail how that will be executed this evening, how Baltimore police will still be fanned out throughout the city, just in case.

CNN's Nick Valencia right now though is in the crowd of this interfaith rally. So, Nick, it is boisterous. It is happy and jubilant; it is like church Sunday right on the park here.

VALENCIA: Certainly is a different tone isn't it from what we saw yesterday's rally on this very same lawn. This is more faith-based- centered and focused but even members that aren't very religious in this community are coming out to show their support, among them, the Asdourian family, you guys want to turn around and join me here? What brought you guys out here today? What was the importance of coming here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just to show the city is one community and that obviously, as a white family, we wanted people to understand we care too and really important to us that people like Freddie Gray aren't dealt with unjustly.

VALENCIA: Eli, you were talking about how you thought it was so important for you to show your support, why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like there's not going to be justice on the streets until people know each other, people know each others neighbors. I live, two, three miles away from here; I don't know anyone here, right? About knowing the divisions break between white and black and between poor and rich so that there's not the misunderstandings there are now, that there's not the brutality there is now. It's hard to ignore one when you know them. One Baltimore is about showing all sides of the city, all sides of the state, all sides of the country, whatever, come together as one and understand that Freddie Gray's death is a tragedy and that is what this is all about.

VALENCIA: As parents listening to your son, you must be pretty proud that's able to have such a mature perspective at his age?

TONY ASDOURIAN, FATHER: Yeah, I mean, we are just really glad to be here as a family. It has been bad what happened to Baltimore but at the same time, people talking about things they haven't been talking about in years.

VALENCIA: Show me your signs. What are these about here? Take a look at these since, Freddie Gray's life matters, love and prayers for his family and one Baltimore. What does this mean to you guys? What do these signs mean?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is 15. Freddie Gray was 25. That is obscenely early to, you know, for someone's life to be over. I can't imagine what his mother and his father and his family are feeling. And so, as much as this is systemic and a large national problem, it is also, like, an individual tragedy, if somebody's life matters that individual life has to matter.

VALENCIA: That's why that --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, we have to have keep him in our minds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why that conversation is so important, Asdourian family, thank you so much for taking the time. You want to walk with me here and just take a look, Fredericka, the crowd, now holding hand hands largely in unison, really just having these conversations, getting to know each other like you just heard from the Asdourian family wanting to talk about the healing process, really wanting to get back to normal here. It's been a tough week, more than that for the city of Baltimore, a certain stain on the city after Monday night's violence, criminal activity there on north and Pennsylvania, community residents here that we have spoken to say they want to get beyond that and it's time for those -- that atmosphere to happen here in the city of Baltimore, Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Nick. And this rally while it is subdued compared to yesterday it is not somber, it is jubilant and I heard from a number of people who say it is indeed still a celebration of the life of a 25-year-old man, Freddie Gray, whose life was taken just weeks ago. Thanks so much, Nick, we'll check back with you there, as the crowd continues to grow. All right, next, a man serving the people of Baltimore, we will talk to him about what actions he has taken to solve problems and heal emotional wounds within the community.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:38:10]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to Baltimore, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, where an interfaith rally is taking place right now and in the midst of it, momentarily, we understand Baltimore police will also have a press conference so we will go that as soon as it happens. Meantime, hearing the noise behind me, in fact, it's not noise, its prayer; people who are churchgoers along with the curious have turned out today, all in solidarity of 25-year-old Freddie Gray who died in the hands of police custody.

Joining me now, Montrel Haygood, he is someone who is here in honor of this interfaith rally today. He has been working as a Pastoral assistant with a garden church right here in West Baltimore although he's from Georgia outside of Atlanta. It was only a year and a half ago that you came to this area to do this good deed, this work with the garden church. What were your initial impressions of West Baltimore and really seeing first hand the hardships, the disparities, and the every day reality for people who live there MONTREL HAYGOOD, THE GARDEN CHURCH PASTORAL ASSISTANT: It was a

culture shock. I am from Barnesville, Georgia, which is the rural south. So, only experience I had with Baltimore was that that I saw on the TV. So when I moved into West Baltimore, I saw the disparity. I saw the results of decades, marginalization, racism, discrimination; I just knew there was going to be a difficult work to do.

WHITFIELD: What are some of the frustrations that people have expressed to you as you minister with them? What are they telling you about the trappings that come with living where they are, the difficulties of trying to get out, trying to remain hopeful?

HAYGOOD: A lot of people in the community, in my community especially people that don't care about, they think that the government is out for them, they think that they are against them, so it's pretty difficult trying to tell them that, okay, there is something that's better for your life, it's difficult trying to tell them about this hope that we tell them about when they are not seeing people who care about them.

WHITFIELD: Especially when you hear from young teenaged kids who say, I can't find work, but I need to help put food on the table and so there is a drug dealer on the corner who said I can make some money if I assist, you know, in passing drugs and in making deals and next thing you know, they are caught up. What are some of those experiences that you were enlightened by of these young people as to, you know, why change around them has to happen so to help facilitate change within them.

HAYGOOD: Right. So one of the major issues is certain programs are being cut, such as recreation programs, after school programs, art programs, in communities that are impoverished. All of these factors lead to them what they know to do and know to do as far as their community that surrounds them. They do what they know to do; they have to do to put food on their family's table. It's quite unfortunate, we have to take some point and look at these government structures and say why certain programs are being cult, because I don't think that's the only thing that leads to situations, like happened this past Monday, but I think that it's definitely an important factor that we must consider.

WHITFIELD: We have heard some from of those who have taken to the microphone this day or even yesterday, heard from folks we just talked to, many of whom as a fire department official -- vehicle goes by, sorry about that heard from many who say there are many Freddie Gray's, this 25-year-old is representative of a lot of experiences where someone was apprehended by police falsely accused or perhaps even died in the hands of custody. When this happened with Freddie Gray and very publicized, had that become a familiar story for you, had you encountered other people who had similar stories to share about their experiences of alleged police brutality?

HAYGOOD: Right. It happens all the time. When I first came to Baltimore, I was told about some instances that people have with the Baltimore police department, like you said; unfortunately this is a situation that happens all the time, it just got publicized. This is something that's habitual in Baltimore, not only in Baltimore but cities across the nation, I don't want to be insensitive to the Freddie Gray situation, but it happens all the time. I, myself, suffered injustice at the hands of Baltimore police.

WHITFIELD: What happened to you?

HAYGOOD: I was in the back seat of a car; the police came up and wanted to see my I.D. I know that by law, I don't have to present them with my I.D. When he got frustrated...

WHITFIELD: Not in the driver's seat?

HAYGOOD: I was not in the driver's seat; I was in the back seat. He became irritated and agitated, he told me to get out of the car and they arrested me.

WHITFIELD: What were you charged with?

HAYGOOD: I was charged with failure to obey lawful order and disorderly conduct. Fortunately, those charges were dropped.

WHITFIELD: Why do you suppose they were dropped? Have someone, an advocate to assist you.

HAYGOOD: I didn't have an advocate, but I think that the volume of other charges that are much more serious than mine led them to drop it unfortunately, this is not the case for other people. I caught a major break.

WHITFIELD: Montrel Haygood, thank you so much for your time. You're doing great work, your ministerial work with the garden church and of course, it looks now, seeing people depart, perhaps part of this interfaith rally is wrapping up, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you sharing your story and experiences much appreciate it. And of course, if you would like to help, so many people in need here in Baltimore and those who lost property in the violence last Monday, we want to encourage you to head to CNN.com/impact and we will be right back, live, here from Baltimore, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:52]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back again. We are waiting for a Baltimore police press conference to happen at any moment and this while the interfaith rally is now beginning to end and wrap up. Meantime, three women here Baltimore is now in the spotlight. The mayor, its state's attorney and the head of Maryland's military division are all relatively young and African-American.

CNN's Stephanie Elam introduces us to them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This maybe the popular image of a powerful woman in Baltimore, but the real battle for peace, justice and civil rights is being waged by these women.

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, BALTIMORE MAYOR: If, with the nation watching, three black women at three different levels can't get justice and healing for this community, you tell me where we are gonna get it.

ELAM: That's right, the mayor, the state's attorney and the head of Maryland's military are all black women.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I love this city and I know we can be better than what we have seen.

ELAM: Perhaps the face of Baltimore politics, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is the city's mayor. A former public defender, Rawlings-Blake walked away with nearly 90% of the general vote in 2011 to win her first full term. A Baltimore native, she was first elected to the city council when she was just 25 years old, the youngest person ever to be elected to the Baltimore city council. A graduate of Overland College and the University Of Maryland School Of Law, the 45-year-old is married and has a daughter.

MARLYN MOSBY, BALTIMORE CITY STATE'S ATTORNEY: To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for no justice, no peace. Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.

ELAM: Entering the spotlight, Marilyn Mosby, the compelling 35-year- old is Baltimore's newly elected state's attorney and the one to make the call to charge six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. Mosby was the first in her family to earn a college degree, graduating with honors from Tuskegee University and from Boston college law school. She then joined the Baltimore city state's attorney's office before becoming a prosecutor. Raised in inner-city Boston, Mosby says she learned the value of public service from her grandfather.

MOSBY: He was a founding member of the black police organization in Massachusetts. He was a police officer. My uncles were police officers. My mother was. My father was.

ELAM: And despite criticism from the police union for what it calls a rush to press charges, Mosby says she is sympathetic to officers called to duty.

MOSBY: I understand the time, the commitment, the sacrifice that these police officers make and I'm not saying in particularly with this case, those officers that assert their authority, you have to be able to hold them accountable because it does a disservice to the really hard working police officers.

ELAM: She has two daughters with her husband, Baltimore city councilman, Nick Mosby. When asked if her marriage presented a conflict of interest, Mosby said...

MOSBY: He works on the legislative side. I am a prosecutor. I am also a public servant. I uphold the law. He makes the laws. And I will prosecute any case within my jurisdiction. LINDA SINGH, MARYLAND ADJUTANT GENERAL: I did not have any racial

issues kind of coming through my entire career. I would have to say it's been more about me being a female versus, you know, being a male.

ELAM: As the Adjutant General for Maryland, Linda Singh is in charge of the state's military department, including its National Guard. Having just taken the helm in February, Singh is the first black person and the first woman to hold the post; she is also a member of the governor's cabinet.

SINGH: I just hope that we remember that trying to change culture, trying to change habits does not happen overnight.

ELAM: A high school dropout and a runaway, Singh went on to graduate from college, earn two masters degrees and receive a bronze star. The 50-year-old Maryland native is married with two daughters.

SINGH: I have kind of grown up in the Maryland army national guard and allowed me to put my fingerprint on something and hopefully, to leave a legacy and to give people some type of hope.

ELAM: Watching closely, the first black female attorney general of the United States who took office just as the protests intensified, all powerful black women whose legacy may forever be tied to this moment in Baltimore's history.

Stephanie Elam, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: We have so much more straight ahead. Thanks so much for being with me this afternoon live from Baltimore. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, much more from Baltimore with Poppy Harlow, after this.