Outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said managing the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2015 riots in Baltimore and his cancer diagnosis were the greatest challenges he faced during his time as governor. 

Hogan met with the Washington, D.C.-based Fox affiliate FOX 5 for an interview to reflect on his time as governor as his second term comes to an end, saying the pandemic was probably the “toughest” challenge he faced. 

But he said handling the violence that occurred in Baltimore following the killing of Freddie Gray and his battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were also difficult. 

“We had all these plans and things we were going to focus on, turning the economy around, getting Maryland to be more competitive, and we focused on that, but 89 days after being governor, we had the worst violence in 47 years break out in our largest city,” he said. 

Hogan sent in 4,000 members of the National Guard and 1,000 police officers to maintain order in Baltimore after the 25-year-old Gray died in police custody as a result of spinal and neck injuries he sustained while being transported in a police van. He later fell into a coma.

The medical examiner ruled Gray’s death a homicide.