On April 12, 25-year-old Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore. According to reports, he tried to run away from four police officers on bicycles but was eventually apprehended and detained. Soon after arriving at a local police station, Gray was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. He died on April 19 from spinal injuries that he received at some point during his arrest.

Exactly how Gray was injured remains something of a mystery; the investigation is still ongoing, the officers involved have been suspended, and their defenders in the department claim that the Gray was hurt while being transported in a police van. But Baltimore police have a history of beating suspects. An in-depth investigative report by The Baltimore Sun in September found a department rife with officers fond of using excessive force and a policing culture that had turned a blind eye to the issue, resulting in a tainted relationship with citizens and millions of paid out victims.

And of course Gray’s death comes on the heels of several very public incidents of police killing unarmed black men in America. Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. and Eric Garner in New York City last summer. And Walter Scott in North Charleston, S.C. earlier this month (that one actually resulted in an indictment of the officer who was caught on cellphone video shooting Scott in the back, unlike the Brown and Garner cases).

Once the details of Gray’s death became news, protests and public displays of outrage spread throughout Baltimore, starting over the weekend and culminating in full scale rioting on Monday, April 27, the day of Gray’s funeral. The resulting chaos has injured more than a dozen police officers, some seriously, and led to dozens of arrests.

And while the cable news stations gave the mayhem plenty of air time, there were several stories that even the most dedicated news junkie might have missed. Here are just a few:

The Original Peaceful Protests

For the most part, the majority of protesters demonstrating over Gray’s death and demanding justice were fairly peaceful. Gray’s family marched with protesters (some estimates put their numbers as high as 4,000) through Western Baltimore on Saturday. And while there were several agitators in the crowd, many of those marching worked to quell any outburst and keep the demonstration nonviolent. But as the crowd moved into the Camden Yards section of the city, which is home to the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, things took a violent turn. Many mainstream outlets depicted the protestors harassing and even some attacking Orioles fans leaving the Saturday’s game, but the truth appears to be more the other way around. According to Brandon Soderberg from Baltimore’s City Paper, who was at the protest on Saturday, fans from the game helped spark the protest’s change to the chaotic and some may have even incited demonstrators though shouts of racial slurs and thrown objects. Soderberg was even photographed with a woman, who was portrayed as being protected by the reporter from protesters, but he says he was trying to get her to keep her from confronting them.

A Mom Disciplined Her Rioting Son…And Is Now A Meme

Following the violent turn of protesters over the weekend, things on Monday seemed to have calmed down. Gray’s family asked for no protests on the day of his funeral and organizers seemed to have honored their wishes. But at around 3 p.m., as the schools were letting out, many of the poorest neighborhoods in Baltimore exploded. It seems that a flyer image calling for a “purge” (in reference to a horror film series about a day when no laws are enforced) had spread on social media through the area high schools and many kids took the cue to begin looting and destroying property, which in turn sparked Monday's chaos lasting into the night. The police even noted that many of the rioters were underage and requested neighborhood parents locate their children and bring them home, which one mother did…as can be seen below.


The moment has since been immortalized in meme form.

The Mysterious Michael Jackson Impersonator

As pandemonium spread throughout Western Baltimore, one odd and humorous aspect that popped up throughout various social media coverage was one Baltimore resident who was using the opportunity to publicly display (and possibly even shoot a tribute video) of his impersonation of the late Michael Jackson. It’s still unclear just who the wannabe “King of Pop” was, but footage of his act is aplenty.

The Cleanup Effort

Just as it was used to set the stage for Monday’s destructing rioting and looting, social media is also being used to help organize the city’s cleanup. Various groups set up Facebook events to organize communities to help clean, recover, and begin the healing process. One event had as much 2,000 attendees vowing to come help out.