WASHINGTON — WTOP’s Mike Murillo had a “surreal” day in Baltimore on Monday, seeing violence — some firsthand — and the kindness of strangers.
Speaking with WTOP’s Mark Lewis and Joan Jones Tuesday morning, Murillo said his first stop was Camden Yards, where people got the word that the Orioles game was postponed “walking behind police in riot gear.”
From there, he headed into West Baltimore, to the sight of cars on fire and people throwing rocks.
“I just saw so many things you wouldn’t expect to see in Baltimore.”
But he also emphasized that he saw plenty of incidences of “people trying to help,” particularly from the religious community.
Murillo recounted seeing a man at Retreat Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the epicenters of the violence, walking with two chunks of asphalt in his hands, ready to throw them at police. Murillo saw to two religious leaders walk up to the man and stop him — with a hug.
“I saw a lot of that yesterday,” Murillo says.
The other thing that struck Murillo — who didn’t mention that at one point Monday night he was threatened with violence himself, by a group of people who told him to leave the area from which he was reporting — was the pain felt by residents who saw much of what they worked for go up in flames.
“My heart went out to … the people living in the neighborhood,” Murillo said, remembering the sight of the Rev. Donte Hickman taking part in a march and trying to calm violence when he got word that the senior center his church had spent eight years building was in the midst of being destroyed.
He related the frustrated words of a police officer Monday night: “They’re destroying our city.”
