Baltimore erupted in violence on Monday, April 27 as hundreds of rioters looted stores, burned buildings and injured at least 15 police officers following the funeral of a 25-year-old black man who died after he was injured in police custody.

An Orioles baseball game was canceled and businesses and train stations shut down in the city of 620,000 people 40 miles (64 km) from the nation's capital.

"All this had to happen, people getting tired of the police killing the young black guys for no reason. ... It is a sad day but it had to happen," said Tony Luster, 40, who is on disability and was out on the street watching the police line.

A string of deadly confrontations between mostly white police and black men, and the violence it has prompted, will be among the challenges facing US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was sworn in on Monday.

Lynch condemned the "senseless acts of violence" and signaled that improving relations between the police and the communities they protect will be high on her agenda.

Riots over race issues and police brutality have gripped US cities in the past.

In the 1992 Los Angeles riots, more than 50 people were killed in violence set off by the acquittal of four police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King. In 1968, dozens died in riots, including several in Baltimore, after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Baltimore a troubled city

Much of the rioting occurred in a neighborhood where more than a third of families live in poverty. The violence appeared to catch Baltimore officials somewhat off-guard after a week of peaceful protests.

After Missouri was criticized for a heavy-handed response to protests over the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August, cities from Madison, Wisconsin, to New York have tread a careful line between allowing peaceful demonstrations over police brutality and preventing violence.

Gray's family had pleaded for peaceful demonstrations and after the looting started, pastors and community leaders took to the streets to try to prevent violent clashes between black youth and police.

Looters were nonchalant and showed their faces.

"We went in there and tore it up," said a 16-year-old who said he was one of the looters inside the CVS.

Just down the street from the smoldering CVS, business owner Daisy Bush, 61, said: "The sad part about it is that a lot of people from the community were up there in the CVS, stealing stuff out of it. It's a disgrace."

Earlier in the day youths threw rocks and bricks at police. Several officers had broken bones, the police department said.