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Revitalization Fund for Baltimore, A Police Career Damaged

Baltimore City Hall
creative commons
Baltimore City Hall

BALTIMORE (AP) - Baltimore's economic development arm is seeking to raise $15 million to help businesses recover from riots and looting sparked by the death of Freddie Gray.

The Baltimore Development Corp. said Wednesday it will use the Baltimore Business Recovery Fund to make no-interest loans of up to $35,000 to businesses with property damage or inventory losses. The nonprofit corporation says about 350 businesses were affected.

The corporation says the loans may convert to grants if certain benchmarks are met.

The fund has gotten commitments totaling $200,000 through a campaign organized by the Greater Baltimore Committee.

The Small Business Administration has released a preliminary estimate of $9 million in uninsured physical property damage from the civil unrest.

Gray was a 25-year-old black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody.

A Career Damaged

Alicia White
Credit Baltimore PD
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Baltimore PD
Alicia White

Lawyers for Alicia White say the sergeant was a rising star determined to break the glass ceiling of the Baltimore City Police Department before she was charged, along with five other officers, in the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in custody and has come to represent police brutality and the city's broken department.

White's attorneys, Ivan Bates and Tony Garcia, are the first to defend any of the officers' character publicly. At a news conference Wednesday Bates and Garcia painted a portrait of a young woman from west Baltimore who began her policing career in the neighborhood services division.

Garcia said White "did nothing wrong" and was "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

White faces charges of manslaughter, second-degree assault and misconduct in office.

Correctional Officers Charged With Looting

BALTIMORE (AP) - Two Baltimore correctional officers were charged Wednesday with looting a downtown convenience store during unrest last month over the death of Freddie Gray.
 
Multiple news sources, citing the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, report that Tamika Cobb and Kendra Richard were caught on video taking merchandise from a 7-Eleven on April 25.
 
The store was one of several damaged and looted when protests turned violent over Gray's death after he suffered a severe spinal injury in police custody.
 
The department says Cobb and Richard were assigned to facilities downtown. The two were placed on unpaid leave.
 
It is unclear if either Cobb or Richard has a lawyer.
 
 

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.