City officials suspended six police officers Monday as they investigate the death of a 25-year-old man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody. Freddie Gray had been hospitalized since his April 12 arrest and, according to his attorney, was in a coma when he died Sunday.

On Monday, the mayor and police commissioner publicly pleaded for calm and promised a full accounting — an effort to keep Baltimore from becoming the latest flash point in disintegrating relations between police and communities across the country. “It has been difficult to overcome decades of mistrust,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) said at a news conference, adding that she was encouraged by peaceful protests thus far. “Our community is experiencing a great deal of trauma. . . . None of us get the answers we need or the Gray family deserves by resorting to violence.”