U.S. demonstrators poured into the streets of Baltimore on Tuesday carrying signs emblazoned with the name of a man who died from a spinal injury he suffered while in police custody.

    The Justice Department said that it has opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a fatal spinal-cord injury under mysterious circumstances after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van.

    Gray was taken into custody April 12 after police “made eye contact” with him and another man in an area known for drug activity, police said, and both men started running. Gray was handcuffed and put in a transport van.

    Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Gray asked for an inhaler and then several times asked for medical care. He was eventually rushed to a hospital.

    Gray died Sunday — a week after his arrest — of what police described as “a significant spinal injury.”

    Exactly how he was injured and what happened in the van is still not known.

    (SD-Agencies)