But after he helped the police clear the streets, he says, the commander told him he wouldn't move the police back. Both the red shirt and the white shirt were older than the youth they are negotiating for.Ĭolion had his rap career interrupted when he was locked up between 20, but partly because of those troubles, and local hit songs such as 2008's 'Projects,' he has the authority to clear the streets. There's now more than a block between them and the line of police.Ĭolion walks into that no-man's land wearing a red shirt and a police commander in a white shirt walks out to join him as the police helicopter hovers above them, momentarily flooding the scene with its fractured light. He urged people to go home when the music stopped-and the 100 or so people did, a little after 5:30 p.m.-because 'police shut it down either way,' hinting that the police could possibly incite violence.īut this crowd was larger today, the emotions more impassioned, and the police presence was far more imposing and unwavering.Įventually, most people listen to Horne and clear the streets and move back. so that the police didn't break it up and nothing got out of hand. There, he informed those that showed up that the event would be ending around 5:15 p.m. Carter had helped organize the much smaller Unity Rally at Pennsylvania Avenue and North Avenue for Scoota the previous afternoon. Horne's words echo what was said to a smaller crowd of mourners by Darrell Carter of L & R Studios who raps as 3D the previous day. 'We enjoyed them coming and we thank them but it's time for them to go now.' 'We just want everybody to go home,' she says. Horne continues to try to get the larger crowd to go so those who really need to mourn can do so. Most of the people in the crowd deny that there were any bricks or bottles thrown. 'Those people who were arrested tonight, those people who chose to throw bricks and bottles at police officers, they did not represent the hundreds of people who gathered here tonight to peacefully mourn the passing, the tragic passing, death, killing of this young man.' A few people, again just a few, I think we had a grand total of three adult arrests tonight,' he said. 'The people who gathered here tonight expected that kind of presence and we provided it. Commissioner Kevin Davis said there was a normal police presence. a few dozen officers lined up across Pennsylvania Avenue and tried to clear the streets. The police began telling everybody to 'go home.' By 8:30 p.m. The crowd who has been peacefully celebrating since about 5 p.m. when the crowd at the vigil moved into the streets and dispersal orders were announced via helicopter. The skirmish seems to have begun around 7 p.m. 'Get on the sidewalk!' she pleads, again and again as people mill about the area, blocked in by police on all sides. Horne says she is thankful that everyone came out, but now she just wants them all to leave. She was devastated by his murder on Saturday and helped to organize the vigil tonight which gave West Baltimore a space to mourn and celebrate Scoota's songs. She says she's known Scoota, born Tyriece Watson, for most of her life. 'They ruined something that wasn't supposed to be ruined,' Kesharna Horne says of the conflict. Ultimately, according to Davis, there are three arrests. The general sense among the crowd is that a vigil was turned into a confrontation because of the police presence.

It's not about the rappers here, they're hurting.' 'What we're doing here is we're trying to stop things from happening that could possibly happen what happened with Freddie,' said Tyree Colion, a veteran rapper who was taking charge of the mourning side of the skirmish and was involved in Sunday's Unity Rally for Scoota as well. Partially because we, the press, are present. And there is potential for things to go bad. Still, the visuals tonight are the same as the uprising with the lines of police, the flashing lights.

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