| THE CASE OF LARRY ROBERSON
In summarizing the deaths of various
Black Panthers, the Times quoted "sources
in Chicago" as saying that Larry Roberson "died in jail
after being wounded in [a] shoot-out during a police raid
— a statement suggesting that he was shot during a planned
police action against a Panther office.
The picture of what happened that can
be pieced together from police records, independent witnesses,
and even the Black Panther newspaper is very different.
At 2:01 A.M. On July 16, 1969, the Chicago police received
a "citizen's complaint" that a fruit stand had been burglarized
at 610 California Street, in the West Side ghetto. A radio
dispatcher routinely recorded this information on a computer
card used for statistical analysis of complaints and crime
patterns, and dispatched the patrol car that his electronic
map indicated was nearest to the scene Car No. 1124, manned
by Officers Kenneth Gorles and Daniel Sampila. According
to Sampila's subsequent report, the officers arrived at
the fruit stand at about 2:05 A.M. and were met by Mr. and
Mrs. Burman Jenkins, friends of its owner, who pointed out
a hole in the door of the stand. The two policemen, led
by Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, then followed a trail of apples
and oranges to a passage way, where they found two empty
fruit baskets. While the police were flashing a searchlight
around, the group encountered Larry Roberson, twenty one,
and Grady Moore, twenty-eight, who identified themselves
as "community leaders, ”and were told by Sampila to "mind
their own business." The group, followed by Roberson and
Moore, then returned to the fruit stand, where they were
met by the Reverend Edmond Jones, who owned the fruit stand,
and another of his friends, the Reverend Clarence Edward
Stowers, who was the pastor at the nearby Mars Hill Missionary
Baptist Church. A few minutes later, the two policemen and
Jenkins were shot. In a statement Stowers made later, he
described what happened this way:
“Reverend Jones, Jenkins, myself, and
the two officers were standing there talking about boarding
up the door. Two men walked up and started looking in the
hole in the door and asking what had happened. The officers
told them that every thing was taken care of and they should
leave. One of the men had his hand in his pocket, and the
officer shined his light on the man. The man asked him why
was he shining the light on him and don't be doing that.
Then the shooting started. The officers had their guns in
their holsters so it must have been the men that were shooting.
One of the officers fell down and the other one got hit
in the shoulder. I remember it was only one of the two men
that was shooting. He turned and ran up the alley. I don't
know where the other one went to. Well, anyway the policeman
that had fallen to the ground got up and started chasing
the man that was shooting at us. They ran down the alley
and I heard more shots.”
Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins agreed with this
account, Mr. Jenkins adding:
“One man shouted something and started
shooting ... after the first shot one officer fell to his
knees, the second shot hit officer Gorles, and the third
shot hit me.”
Roberson, pursued through the alley,
was shot in the ankle, in the thigh, and in the abdomen
by Sampila before he surrendered. According to the Chicago
crime laboratory, the bullets that struck Gorles (in the
left shoulder and collarbone, Sampila (in the head), and
Jenkins (in the right side) all came from a .38-caliber
snub-nosed Smith & Wesson taken from Roberson. This turned
out to be a stolen weapon. Roberson was arrested on charges
of attempted murder and was admitted to the Cermak Memorial
Hospital, where he underwent surgery. Seven weeks later,
be contracted jaundice and died in the Cook County Hospital.
A somewhat different version of the
incident was provided by the Black Panther newspaper, which
reported, in August:
“On July 17, 1969, two brothers in the
Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party were returning
to their community after finishing a day of revolutionary
work for the people's Party. On this particular night they
noticed the pigs had nine brothers on the wall next to a
storefront, harassing them. Five of the brothers were in
ages ranging from 50-60 years old. The pigs claimed they
were answering a burglary in process call. Can you imagine
men 50-62 years old burglarizing a store in their own community?
Well, after investigating the matter and coming to the conclusion
that this was just another racist act of harassment committed
by the pigs on the people, Larry Roberson and Grady Moore
walked over to the scene where the majority of the people
had gone and asked an officer what was going on. The pig
then demagogically replied "This is none of your damn business."
Larry then stated "I am a member of this
community and even by your laws I have the right to know
what's going on." The crazy pig then said "smart bastard,
you're under arrest for disorderly conduct." The people
of the community immediately got between Larry and the pigs,
and the pig drew his gun and ordered them aside while his
pig partner radioed for help. Larry then (with the instructions
from the people) was told to go home because the people
hadn't seen him do anything, so he and Grady started away
and the pig deliberately shot Larry in the leg. Grady grabbed
Larry to help him to try to escape with his life. This whole
area was sealed off with crazy, drunk, inhuman pigs. Larry
was then cornered in an alley, unarmed and wounded. As the
pig approached him, he oinked "I'll teach you and your partner
how to interfere with pig matters." He then aimed at Larry's
head. It was true that Larry was unarmed, but being a Panther
and a stone revolutionary, he had educated the true power—
the people. As the pig was ready to squeeze the trigger,
the power of the people was demonstrated. A voice quoted
Huey: "You racist pigs must withdraw immediately from the
black community and cease this wanton murder and brutality
of black people or face the wrath of the armed people."
Then, the shots from the people rang out from everywhere
for about 30 seconds: then it ceased. One pig shot in the
head and one pig shot in the shoulder. Larry and Grady then
started to make it when more pigs arrived. Larry and Grady
turned and raised their hands. "The pig that was shot
in the shoulder raised his gun and shot Brother Larry in
the stomach, thigh and leg trying to kill him. Grady, evidently
escaped death when the people in the community came out
to witness the action.”
The statements that Roberson was unarmed
and that the "people" did the shooting were contradicted
by a subsequent report in the Black Panther newspaper, which
said that "determined to defend himself even after he being
shot, Larry managed to get his gun out and wound two of
the attacking maniacs." But the Panther version and the
police version agree in a number of significant respects:
the encounter was accidental, not planned; the Panthers
approached the police rather than the other way around;
and two police officers were shot before Roberson
was seriously wounded in the abdomen.
Even accepting the Panther version,
Roberson was wounded in an incident no one had planned.
THE CASE OF BOBBY HUTTTON
According to Life, Bobby Hutton.
the seventeen-year-old minister of Defense of the Black
Panther Party, was killed and Eldridge Cleaver was wounded
in an "Oakland police ambush" in 1968. The Times
quoted Garry as attributing Hutton's death to a "Police
ambush."
Shortly after 9 p.m. on April. 6, 1968,
Officers Nolan R. Darnell and Richard R. Jensen, while on
patrol in the area of Oakland, California, that is predominately
inhabited by blacks, stopped their patrol car on Union Street
next to a parked 1954 Ford when they caught a glimpse of
a man crouching at the curb side of the car. In their report,
they said that they suspected he might be trying to steal
it. Moments later, while investigating the situation, both
officers were hit by bullets fired from behind them. Afterward,
forty-nine bullet holes were found in the police car, the
rear window had "two large areas shot inward," and
the side windows and the open door, next to which Darnell
was standing at the time, had also been hit numerous times.
According to medical reports prepared by Dr. William Mills,
Jr., of Samuel Merritt Hospital, Darnell was wounded in
the "upper right back." Jensen, apparently hit by a shotgun
blast from a 12-gauge shotgun, suffered multiple wounds
in the "lower right back," in the "right arm," and in the
"right ankle and foot." According to Darnell, a number of
men armed with shotguns and rifles ran from cars parked
behind and ahead of the 1954 Ford, some of them through
an alley into the block across the street, while Darnell
urgently called for help on the police radio.
An account of the incident in the Black
Panther newspaper said, "Several Panthers in cars in West
Oakland on Saturday night, April 6th, were approached by
two pigs and menaced with guns. When the Panthers tried
to defend themselves, shooting began, and the Panthers ran
into a nearby house.... Two pigs were wounded slightly."
Four Black Panthers gave statements to the police in which
they said that they had been patrolling the neighborhood
with guns, in three cars, to protect Negroes against police
brutality"' and had just parked their cars on Union Street
in order to stow their weapons in a nearby house when the
patrol car pulled up, but the four disclaimed any knowledge
of how the shooting began. Cleaver later said in an interview
that was published in the San Francisco Chronicle,
"I don't know how those cops got shot. There were so many
bullets whizzing around they may have shot themselves.
In any event, after the two police men
were shot, police from other parts of West Oakland and even
from nearby Emeryville, responding to the radio alarm, surrounded
a building on Twenty-eighth Street that the Panthers had
entered, and there ensued a ninety-minute gun battle, in
which a third policeman was wounded. Finally, after an exploding
tear-gas canister had set fire to the building, two Panthers
emerged: Cleaver, naked, and wounded by a tear-gas shell,
and Hutton, fully clothed. According to police witnesses,
Hutton suddenly bolted down Twenty-eighth Street, whereupon
at least half a dozen policemen opened fire, fatally wounding
him. Cleaver, in the Chronicle interview, gave
a different version of the shooting of Hutton. He admitted
that Hutton had fired some shots at the police, but said
that he himself "took Bobby's gun and threw it out" of the
window, that is, and that they both came out unarmed. "The
cops told us to get up and start running for the squad car,"
Cleaver continued. "Bobby started running -- he ran about
ten yards -- and they started shooting him." The grand jury,
after hearing thirty-five witnesses, concluded that the
police had "acted lawfully," shooting Hutton in the belief
he was trying to escape.
Eight other Panthers, including Cleaver,
who were allegedly involved in the shooting of the policemen
were arrested that night and then were released on bail.
Two of the eight were subsequently convicted of assault
with deadly weapons; one was released to a juvenile court;
one was tried and convicted for an unrelated armed robbery
and sent to state prison; one, Cleaver, jumped bail and
fled the country.
THE CASES OF STEVEN BARTHOLOMEW, ROBERT
LAWRENCE, AND THOMAS LEWIS
At about 4:45 p.m. on August 5, 1968,
in a predominantly Negro section of Los Angeles, three Black
Panthers were fatally shot and two policemen were wounded,
one critically, in a shootout at Ham's Mobil Service Station.
Fifteen minutes earlier, Police Officers
Rudy Limas and Norman J. Roberge were on a routine patrol
when, according to their reports, they saw a black 1955
Ford with four men in it start up a private driveway, stop
suddenly, then back down the driveway.
Finding the movements suspicious, the
policemen began following the Ford, whose occupants, Limas
noted, kept "'looking back." Limas then called the police
communications center on the patrol car's radio and gave
the Ford's license number, to ascertain whether it had been
reported stolen. Before a reply could be received, the Ford
pulled into Ham's service station and stopped by a gas pump.
The police car stopped a few feet behind it, and Roberge,
according to his statement, asked the driver of the Ford
for his license. The driver, Roberge reported, "replied
that they didn't have a driver's license," whereupon Roberge
"instructed the driver to go back to the police car and
place his hands on top of the police car." Roberge then
ordered the three other suspects out of the Ford and over
to the police car. "At this time," Roberge stated, "the
suspects were standing in a row facing the police vehicle"
between the two police officers.
Limas gave the following description
of what happened next: "Suddenly, the guy in front of me,
who I think was wearing a yellow shirt and dark pants, spun
around and pointed a gun at me, and the others moved at
the same time. The guy in the yellow shirt said, 'O.K.,
m-f-' and then he shot me." According to medical reports
and testimony, Limas was shot in the abdomen and the thigh,
with a bullet lodging in the hip. Roberge stated, "As I
walked toward the police vehicle, I saw my partner, Officer
Limas, standing to the left rear of the police vehicle on
the other side of the group, facing me. Suddenly I heard
some shots and I was knocked to the ground." According to
the medical evidence, Roberge was shot in both legs. In
the gun battle that followed, Limas fatally shot "the guy
in the yellow shirt" and a second suspect, who was "trying
to load a 9mm pistol," and Roberge "emptied" his gun at
a third suspect. The fourth man who had been in the car
fled on foot.
There were two independent witnesses
to the shooting -- the service station attendants, Shoji
Katayama and Eugene Oba. Katayama, who explained that he
was standing US the pumps,stated in a deposition:
A black 4-door Ford pulled into the
station, pursued by a police car. There were 4 Negroes in
the Ford. The driver and front passenger both got out and
opened the hood of the car. The two officers immediately
got out and ordered all four to the police car with their
hands leaning on it. The driver of the Ford looked like
to me he hesitated a while and was smoking a cigarette.
As the driver with the cigarette came to the car, the Mexican
officer [Limas] ordered him not to put out the cigarette
[near the pumps], and at that point I heard a couple of
shots and I looked up and saw the Mexican officer on the
ground and the male Negro with the khaki shirt (Army type)
with the gun in his hand....
The other attendant, Oba, had been returning
to the office when the shooting began. He gave a similar
account of the incident, adding only that after the first
round of shots, he"saw the Caucasian officer shooting at
the Negro men."
When the shooting stopped, a few minutes
later, three men were dead or dying -- Thomas Melvin Lewis,
eighteen, "the guy in the yellow shirt;" Robert A. Lawrence,
twenty-two; and Steven Kenneth Bartholomew, twenty-one.
The Black Panther Party stated that they were all Black
Panthers. The fourth suspect, who was subsequently identified
by his palm prints on the police car as Anthony Reno Bartholomew,
the nineteen-year-old brother of Steven, later surrendered
voluntarily to a judge, and was arraigned on two counts
of assault with intent to commit murder. Anthony Bartholomew's
lawyer, Gary Bellow, a well-known civil rights attorney
who has handled a number of Black Panther cases in Los Angeles,
noted in a memorandum filed with the court, "There is no
dispute that the police officers, Norman Roberge and Rudy
Limas, were criminally assaulted on August 5, 1968," but
went on to argue that his client had not in fact taken part
in the gun battle. Anthony Bartholomew was found not guilty.
[NEXT
PAGE]
|
