Hundreds of demonstrators, chanting and holding signs, drove and marched through Baltimore streets Saturday to call attention to the killing of a Minnesota man at the hands of police, as city leaders urged the protesters to remain peaceful while acknowledging their frustration and pain.

Yet the afternoon and early evening of peaceful protest turned tense around 9:30 p.m. in front of City Hall as some protesters threw water bottles and vandalized a police van even as others urged them to stop. Crowd members chanted “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and police in riot gear with shields moved the protesters back.

Some protesters pushed up against the metal barriers, yelling at the police officers. Officers were not responding.

“We got kids out here,” City Council President Brandon Scott said from the scene. “No grown person should put a kid at risk because they’re throwing a bottle.”

With protesters still outside City Hall as midnight approached, tactical officers guarded a convenience store in the 200 block of E. Baltimore St. that had been vandalized, one of its two glass doors broken. Windows also were smashed at the Gallery at Harborplace, but the crowd was smaller than earlier in the day and the police presence large.

Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young warned demonstrators during an afternoon news conference to act lawfully, saying that “I have zero tolerance for anything that approaches chaos and lawbreaking,” while acknowledging that “there’s an incredible amount of pain running through our city and our country right now” and that he felt it, too.

Anger and frustration over the death of George Floyd, who died after being pinned by the neck to ground by a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer, bubbled over in city after city around the country. Protests turned violent with demonstrators confronting police in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fully mobilized the state’s National Guard and promised a massive show of force to help quell unrest in Minneapolis and St. Paul that has grown increasingly destructive. In Wilmington, Delaware, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, protesters made their way onto nearby interstates and shut them down temporarily. In Los Angeles, police used batons to move protesters back and shot rubber bullets to scatter the crowd. An overturned police car burned outside Philadelphia’s city hall.

With their “Black Lives Matter” signs and “No justice, no peace” chants, the Baltimore protesters’ actions recalled other painful periods in the city’s and nation’s history. Baltimore was confronted in 2015 with protests — as well as arson and looting — after the death of Freddie Gray in city police custody.

Saturday afternoon’s demonstration in Baltimore was peaceful. The first demonstrators, most wearing masks, arrived by foot or in cars about 3 p.m. at a parking lot on North Charles Street that was a meeting point for the rally. Music played from a car speaker. The early crowd was a mix of black and white, women and men. Many demonstrators carried signs or decorated their cars with stickers.

Later, a chanting, fist-pumping crowd marched to City Hall, to police headquarters, to Harbor East and Fells Point. The Rev. Westley West, a Baltimore pastor, appeared to be leading the group.

In addition to Floyd, the events also recognized Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police in March in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed in February while jogging in Georgia. Participants carried signs, some reading “Justice 4 George” and “Say Their Names.”

Prosecutors in Minnesota on Friday announced charges against the former officer who was seen on video pinning Floyd to the ground with a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

The Baltimore crowd on Saturday swelled to hundreds, with demonstrators spilling onto the sidewalk and street. Some cars driving by honked their horns. The rally included a caravan of cars as well as walkers. Traffic crawled along on North Charles Street as people drove slowly with blinkers on, making the procession look like a funeral.

“It wasn’t a tough decision,” Michelle Bramucci, 39, a Baltimore County insurance adjuster, said of her participation.

She had watched the video of Floyd, calling it “tragic.”

“The reason you’re seeing that is not because it’s a new thing. It’s because it’s being filmed,” she said.

Emily Marion, 24, a biomedical engineer from Baltimore County, said the event showcased one of the city’s attributes.

“This is a big city but it’s a city of neighborhoods,” she said. “This is a very diverse mixture. That’s what Baltimore is.”

By 4 p.m., the parade of cars had started rolling through the intersection of North and Pennsylvania avenues. Several people stood on nearby sidewalks with signs bearing messages such as “Why is this still happening?”

Demba Gologo sat atop a yellow pickup truck on North Avenue, beating rhythms on an empty water jug with a mallet to encourage the protesters driving by.

“We just want a peaceful protest and everybody is doing a beautiful job,” he said. “No violence.”

Gologo’s nearby shop, which sells “a little bit of everything,” was looted in rioting in 2015 after the death of Gray, who was mortally wounded while in police custody after being arrested on a minor charge. Gologo still hasn’t gotten all the damage repaired but said he holds no ill will toward those who looted his shop.

He shares frustrations about police brutality and said he understands why people lashed out in 2015. “

We have learned the hard way,” Gologo said between beats. “From Freddie Gray, we learned so much. So much damage affected the city. Now they want to do it peaceful so that people can hear the message.”

As the demonstration continued, City Council President Brandon Scott appeared at a City Hall news conference and said: “We’re all frustrated.”

He encouraged people to “demand change,” but to do so in a peaceful manner similar to peaceful protests Friday night.

“Being black in America is exhausting,” Scott said. “We shouldn’t have people dying at the hands of the police. ... It’s up to us to change all of it, together.”

Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said officers were helping and allowing people to peacefully protest. He said the department was “adjusting” in response to changes in protest activity.

Later Saturday, marchers streamed into the plaza at City Hall, shouting chants such as: “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” Police officers stood in front of City Hall, wearing masks and with their hands clasped in front.

Demonstrators then moved on to police headquarters, where they urged a police lieutenant to read a list of names of police brutality victims.

The lieutenant lowered his face mask and read through all of them individually, as the crowd chanted “Next name" each time. The crowd moved on.

Demonstrators then marched through posh Harbor East, stopping in front of the Four Seasons hotel and shouting “Power to the people!”

Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones announced the formation of a bipartisan work group of lawmakers who will review police reform and accountability.

“Policing in America is broken,” Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, said in a statement Saturday. “While we have taken a number of positive steps in Maryland, we can’t be satisfied until every citizen has confidence in their police department.”

The work group will be chaired by Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, a Howard County Democrat. In the announcement, Jones and Atterbeary, both of whom are black, noted that they are mothers of sons.

“The events around the country this week have underscored that we cannot wait another day,” Atterbeary said. “We need structural reform ideas from the community and law enforcement to fix this problem in a collaborative way.”

Baltimore Sun reporters Wilborn P. Nobles III, Liz Bowie and Phillip Jackson and Capital Gazette reporter Brooks DuBose and The Associated Press contributed to this article.