Najla Abdullah looked out at the crowd of more than 300 people who gathered in Upton on Friday evening. They held signs and chanted. She thanked them for their support and peaceful demonstration.

More than anything, she wanted them to say her brother’s name: Bilal “BJ” Abdullah, the beloved arabber fatally shot by Baltimore Police this week.

“My brother did not deserve this,” she said. “Baltimore City Police — we look to them to support and protect us, and they took my brother away.”

She broke down in tears but led the crowd in a chant: “Justice for the fruit man!”

For many in the community, his death brought back a familiar story of neighborhood and police tensions and threatens to hurt recent strides in relationship building by police. City Hall officials sought to ease concerns, meeting with residents earlier in the day, as the city heads into the annual AFRAM festival, one of its biggest weekends of the year.

But feelings of distrust and skepticism seemed to prevail. The demonstrators gathered at the CVS Pharmacy on the corner of West North and Pennsylvania avenues and marched to the Upton Metro station, where Abdullah was shot. They called for a thorough investigation of the circumstances that led to his killing and punishment for the officers involved.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office, which investigates police shootings, identified the officers involved earlier Friday. Officials said police body camera footage should be released in the coming days.

Jamal Turner, the chair of the Police Accountability Board, said he believes the community is feeling “frustration, disappointment and grief.” Many demonstrators said Abdullah’s killing felt too similar to the case of Freddie Gray, whose 2015 death in police custody sparked protests across the city.

There is “a certain level of exhaustion that happens when you have fatal police shootings that occur,” said Turner, who called a board meeting about the shooting that was held Friday evening. “This shooting occurred not too far from where Freddie Gray happened. It is something in the frontal lobes of people’s minds.”

Demonstrator Harrison Reed said he felt he needed to show support because what happened to Abdullah could happen to anyone.

“This is kind of what we do in the city of Baltimore,” Reed said. “We protect one another. In times that we are right now, we need to be standing up for each other as much as we can. And people have to understand we’re not going to stand for this type of behavior.”

Reed remembers the protests that took place after Gray’s death, and “a lot of those same things from [2015], I’m feeling right now. I’m sure a lot of other people here are feeling that as well.”

As marchers made their way down open streets, there were people on scooters, pushing baby strollers and raising signs high. As they passed bystanders on the street, many chanted back at them or recorded them on their phones.

One toddler banged together drumsticks. Volunteers stopped intermittently to hand out water and Gatorade. Outside the U.S. Postal Service Druid Station, uniformed postal workers stopped to watch.

Former NFL linebacker Aaron Maybin, a local activist, told the crowd that although body camera footage hasn’t been released yet, Abdullah’s community already knows “there’s nothing a human being can do to warrant being killed the way our brother was killed.”

Kflu Kflu, another attendee, said the shooting shows that things haven’t changed much since 2015, but he noted the crowd was more diverse in race, age and political belief than he saw a decade ago.

“They just killed him, even after Black Lives Matter,” Kflu said. “I’m so f—ing fed up.”

Kflu said it’s important to gather the community in the wake of Abdullah’s death “or they’re going to keep killing us.” He said the police involved in the shooting need to be fired and that there needs to be a thorough investigation “with teeth.”

He called Abdullah a “peaceful brother.”

“The man should be here,” Kflu said. “It’s his city.”

Abdullah was the son of an arabber and for years brought fresh fruits and vegetables to the city’s food deserts. Though he quit a few years ago because of health issues, Abdullah frequented the neighborhood where one of the city’s horse stables remains.

He should be remembered for “just being a good guy, helping the community out, having a loving heart,” demonstrator Loui Bag said.

Abdullah’s mother attended the rally and addressed the crowd. After a speech from Musaa Abdurrahman, the city’s Muslim community liaison, the crowd recited The Lord’s Prayer. It was at his mother’s request, “for everyone who isn’t Muslim.”

At least two police vans were parked and flashing lights at the rally and a police helicopter was flying overhead, but there was otherwise little visible police presence.

In Upton earlier Friday, on the outskirts of a housing complex, black and blue balloons from a vigil remained tied to a black railing. Candles spelling out “BJ” with hearts lined the floor. A small child with braids carefully tiptoed around the candles in his dark blue and black Nikes before joining friends on the block.

Cornell Smith, a 40-year resident of Sandtown, is not surprised that people are jumping to action to advocate for Abdullah, but he has doubts about how long the energy will last.

“It’s sad down here,” he said.

Levar Mullen, a longtime arabber who has known Abdullah for decades, said his friend was “one of a kind” with a “million-dollar smile.”

Ahead of the rally, Mullen was preparing to take his four horses to the march. Mullen said he thinks horses are a sign of peace, and Pimp, a large brown standardbred and Tennessee walking horse, was one of the last horses Abdullah borrowed from Mullen for arabbing.

Mullen is still trying to understand what happened to his friend.

“A life is a life, but it’s BJ,” he said between the sounds of horse hooves pounding against the muddy ground.

What led up to Abdullah’s death

On Tuesday, Abdullah was standing on a street corner when approached by police in an unmarked cruiser, authorities said. The officers, who believed Abdullah was armed, attempted to speak to him from the vehicle, according to police.

An officer then got out of the car and began following Abdullah, who was wearing a crossbody bag and allegedly shifted it from back to front before running away.

Police said Abdullah shot at officers while they were chasing him, and three shot at him. One officer was shot in the foot and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment.

Authorities did not say who fired first, but the attorney general’s office said the three officers shot at Abdullah after he pointed a gun at them. The involved officers were identified just hours before the march began. They were Devin Yancy, an eight-year veteran; Omar Rodriguez, a six-year veteran; and Ashley Negron, a seven-year veteran.

A chaotic and tense scene unfolded after the shooting. Bystanders called the incident police brutality and confronted officers. In the end, dozens of law enforcement officers responded to the area, and videos of the confrontations flooded social media.

Turner, the chair of the Police Accountability Board, also discussed the importance of the board working within Baltimore’s communities to answer questions and ensure people know how to file complaints with the board.

He said the board will review Abdullah’s killing as soon as it gets information from the Baltimore Police Department and the attorney general’s office, but it may take months. The board will review body camera footage from the scene, which officials are expected to release in the coming days.

“Let us not forget the Police Accountability Board was born from the actions, from the advocacy of the Baltimoreans that marched, that fought for more transparency for police,” Turner said.

Baltimore Banner reporters Justin Fenton, Tim Prudente, Darreonna Davis and Clara Longo de Freitas contributed reporting.