Churchgoers and their ministers toured Baltimore in a motorcade Saturday, seeking to envelop the city in prayer as a police officer stands trial for murder and blood continues to be shed on the streets.
Bishop Angel Nunez, an organizer with the Multicultural Prayer Movement, compared the way church members drove around in vans to the ride in a police van during which Freddie Gray suffered a fatal injury last year.
"A police officer is on trial because he drove a van," Nunez said on the steps of the First Apostolic Faith Church just north of the Perkins Homes. "But we have been driving a van all around the city all day today and in those vans have been intercessors, prayer warriors, men and women of God that are saying enough is enough with this city. We want Baltimore to be safe.
"We're tired of the crime. We're tired of the violence. We're tired of broken homes and broken lives."
It is the fourth time Nunez's group has organized a tour through the city calling for an end to strife. The East Baltimore church was the caravan's final stop after setting off from City Hall at noon and stopping at several churches around the city. Separate groups led by Baltimore County pastors toured the Beltway.
The caravan of vehicles arrived at the church shortly before 4 p.m. escorted by police on motorbikes. People poured out of vans, buses, SUVs and cars to the sound of soulful music that could be heard a block away and the urging of the Rev. Cornell Showell, a pastor at First Apostolic, to "release that praise under an open heaven."
"Come off the buses with the worship in your heart," Showell said.
A stiff breeze and some patches of shade made the heat on the sidewalk just bearable for the racially mixed crowd of 100 or so people who gathered for a last round of prayers.
Earlier, the motorcade visited the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues, the site of looting and arson during last year's riot, and Nunez, a pastor at Bilingual Christian Church, said that whatever happens in the trial of Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., he wants people to be calm and put their trust in God.
"No riots. No Riots. No burning buildings. No hurting people," he told the crowd. "But love! Peace for the city of Baltimore."
Prosecutors said in court last week that Goodson gave Gray a "rough ride" as he drove him around West Baltimore in a police van on April 12, 2015. Gray suffered a severe spinal injury in the van and died in the hospital a week later.
Matt Stevens, another pastor, said it was important to see members of churches in the city and the counties coming together and led the group to pray about problems affecting all areas of the state, including heroin addiction.
"The things that separate us like county-city lines, police districts, God didn't put those lines there," he said. "God didn't mean for us to be separated, he meant for us to come together."
The pastors also called for an end to violent crime in the city. Showell's brother was killed last year and he said that the crime has not been solved. Byron Showell, 47, was gunned down in northwest Baltimore last May, one of the city's deadliest months on record.
The homicide rate has fallen slightly this year, but more than 120 people already have been killed in Baltimore and the total number of shootings was higher at the start of June than at the same time last year. As the group was meeting at the church police announced that the victim of a West Baltimore homicide in the early hours of the morning was a 13-year-old boy, Deandre Barnes.
Bishop Marcus A. Johnson Sr., a pastor at New Harvest Ministries, led a prayer for the police and also called for order, saying it was only Satan who seeks chaos.
"Lord, we need law enforcement," Johnson said.
As he brought the day to a close, Johnson asked the crowd a question: "Hasn't this been wonderful?"
"Yes!" the people shouted back.
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