BALTIMORE, Md. — They were first responders of a different kind.
When violence broke out in West Baltimore in the wake of Freddie Gray's death, on streets they knew all too well, people like Devin Walker, who grew up there, ran back to their old neighborhood.
And straight toward the fire, helping to bring peace during one of the most tumultuous times in Baltimore’s history.
VIDEO: Devin Walker's Journey Back to West Baltimore
“My main thing was, I didn't want anyone else to get hurt,” Walker says. “Young people, police, community. I just felt like if there was anything that I could do to prevent that from happening, I needed to do it.”
The father of two boys was living in Owings Mills at the time. He and several childhood friends, who also lived in the suburbs, watched the news about their old neighborhood in shock. And they decided to take action.
“We didn't have a plan,” Walker says. “We were trying to come up with a plan. Just trying to prevent April 28th from being the same as April 27th.”
So, the day after massive protests and unrest, Walker and his friends went to the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues, where businesses were being ransacked and burned, to try to stop the violence from spreading.
“We just stepped in between the police and the protesters, gathered as many as we could, and brought them back here to the Cloverdale basketball court,” he says.
They had a mic system set up so people could vent their frustrations in a safe and controlled environment. He believes their actions helped bring calm to the city.
“This is home,” he says. “This is where I'm from. I think growing up in an environment like this, you end up taking ownership of everything, the good and the bad, and you want to highlight the good aspects, as many as you can.”
The experience had a profound impact on Walker. He moved back into the city and switched careers from a social worker to an award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Chronicling life here with films like 'Eating While Broke,' about food insecurity in West Baltimore. And ‘Baltimore Love.’
“All of the projects I create are about this, just uplifting the community to addressing whatever social issues that I can uncover and connect some type of resources to,” he says. “That's what I do now because of that.”
And for his contributions, last summer, just steps away from this basketball court, the city renamed the block where his mother still lives as Devin Walker Way.
