The White House announced over the weekend it is sending three representatives to the Monday funeral for Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who suffered fatal injuries to his spinal cord after being taken into a police van.
The three guests include Baltimore native and Chairman of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, Broderick Johnson. My Brother’s Keeper is an initiative launched in February 2014 that aims to support and empower young minority men.
Joining Johnson will be Heather Foster, an adviser in the White House Office of Public Engagement and Elias Alcantara, Associate Director with the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. According to Alcantara’s official biography, he serves as a liaison for local officials across the country.
Broderick and Foster also attended the funeral of Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old who was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer last August.
Services are set to start shortly Monday morning, for the 25-year-old, as details as to what exactly happened between Gray and the Baltimore police remain unclear. Over the weekend, hundreds peacefully protested the death and the police response to it in Baltimore, though a small minority of demonstrators were arrested for smashing police cruisers.