I live near Baltimore as well. I watched the news reporting live for 6 hours last evening. A few things:
1. The original violence seemed to be perpetrated by kids. You saw many school uniforms and backpacks. They had been on social media talking about it during the school day. The violence broke out at about 3 pm, just after school let out.
2. The Baltimore police were told to stand down by the mayor. She said this was research-based "best practices" so as not to inflame a crowd already angry with the police.
3. Multiple other jurisdictions were called in during this time.
4. After 4 hours, at 7 pm, the mayor asked the governor to call in the National Guard. He immediately declared a state of emergency and the National Guard was called up.
5. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has imposed a 10pm to 5am curfew starting tonight and lasting a week.
6. There were multiple leaders of local churches that put themselves between the police line and the rioters attempting to calm them down. They marched through the streets with the police line behind them. This seemed to calm the crowd somewhat. However, by this time, the violence had spread to other parts of the city.
7. The actions were roundly criticised by black city leaders and most citizens interviewed on the local news channel, WBAL. On another station, there was footage of a mother beating a teenage boy. When asked what was going on, she said this was her son and he was one of the rioters. She was enraged by his behavior.
8. After 8pm, fires broke out in multiple areas of the city.
I turned off the television by 9 pm, but these are the events reported on local TV up till that time.