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Campus "Unrest" demonstrations and consequences, 1970-1971

1971-11-12 American Report: Review of Religion and American Power Page 21

AMERICAN REPORT   17-S

F.B.I. Summary: 'There Was No Sniper'

[italics] The following are some of the principal conclusions of a summary, prepared sometime in July, 1970 by the Justice Department's Civil Rights division, of the F.B.I. report on Kent State.[/italics]

1. Most persons estimate that about 200-300 students were gathered around the Victory Bell on the Commons with another 1,000 or so gathered on the hill directly behind them. Apparently, the crowd was without a definite leader, although at least three persons carried flags.
2. The crowd apparently was initially peaceful and relatively quiet.
3. Information suggest that it was the Ohio National Guard who determined that the rally would not be held.
4. Just prior to the time the Guard left its position on the practice field, members of Troop G were ordered to kneel and aim their weapons at the students in the parking lot south of Prentice Hall. They did so, but did not fire. One person, however, probably an officer, at this point did fire his pistol in the air. No guardsman admits firing this shot.
5. Some guardsmen, including Gen. Robert Canterbury and Maj. Harry Jones, clam that the Guard did run out of tear gas at this time. However, in fact, it had not.
6. Forty-seven guardsmen, claim they did not fire their weapons. There are substantial indications that at least two and possibly more Guardsmen are lying concerning this fact.
7. The Guardsmen were not surrounded. Regardless of the location of the students following them, photographs  and television film show that only a very few students were located between the Guard and the Commons. They could easily have continued in the direction in which they had been going. 
8. No guardsman claims he was hit with rocks immediately prior to the shooting.
9. Only one guardsman, Lawrence Shafer, was injured on May, 4, 1970 seriously enough to require any kind of medical treatment. He admits his injury was received some 10 to 15 minutes before the fatal volley was fired.
10. One Guardsman specifically states that the quantity of rock throwing was not as great just prior to the shooting as it had been before.
11. There was no sniper.
12. The great majority of Guards do not state that they were under sniper fire and many specifically state that the first shots came from the National Guardsmen.
13. At least one person who has not admitted firing his weapon, did so. The F.B.I. is currently in possession of four spent .45 cartridges which came from a weapon not belonging to any person who admitted he fired. The F.B.I. has recently obtained all .45's of persons who claimed they did not fire, and is checking them against the spent cartridges.
14. Sgt. Robert James of Company A assumed he'd been given an order to fire, so he fired once in the air. As soon as he saw some of the men of the 107th (Troop G) were firing into the crowd, he ejected his remaining seven shells so he would not fire any more.
15. Sgt. Ruby Morris of Troop G prepared to fire his weapon but stopped when he realized that the "rounds were not being placed."
16. Sgt. Richard Love of Company C fired once in the air, then saw others firing into the crowd; he asserted he "could not believe" that the others were shooting into the crowd, so he lowered his weapon.
17. Four students were killed, nine others were wounded, three seriously. Of the students who were killed, Jeff Miller's body was found 85-90 yards from the Guard. Allison Krause fell about 100 yards away. William Schroeder and Sandy Scheuer were approximately 130 yards away from the Guard when they were shot.
18. Although both Miller and Krause probably had been in the front ranks of the demonstrators initially, neither was in a position to pose even a remote danger to the National Guard at the time of the firing. Sandy Scheuer, as best as we can determine, was on her way to a speech therapy class. We do not know whether Schroeder participated in any way in the confrontation that day.
19. Miller was shot while facing the Guard. The bullet entered his mouth and exited at the base of the posterior skull. Both Krause and Scheuer were shot form the side. The bullet that killed Allison Krause penetrated the upper left arm and then into the left lateral chest. The bullet which killed Sandy Scheuer entered the left front side of her neck and exited the right front side. William Schroeder was shot while apparently lying in a prone position., facing away from the Guard. The bullet entered his left back at the seventh rib and some fragments exited at the top of his left shoulder. 
20. Of the 13 Kent State students shot, none, so far as we know, were associated with either the disruption in Kent on Friday night, May 1, 1970, or the burning of the R.O.T.C. building on Saturday, May 2, 1970.
21. Aside entirely from any questions of specific intent on the part of the Guardsmen or a predisposition to use their weapons, we do not know what started the shooting. We can only speculate on the possibilities. For example, Sgt. Leon Smith of Company A stated that he saw a man about 20 feet from him running at him with a rock. Sergeant Smith then says he fired his shotgun once in the air. He alone of all the Guardsmen does not mention hearing shooting prior to the time he fired...It is also possible that the members of Troop G observed their top non-commissioned officer, Sgt. CD Myron Pryor, turn and point his weapon at the crowd and followed his example. Sergeant Pryor admits that he was pointing his weapon at the students prior to the shooting but denies he fired. The F.B.I. does not believe he fired. Another possibility is that one of the Guards either panicked and fired first, or intentionally shot at a student, thereby triggering the other shots.

[italics] The following are excerpts from an "Appeal for Justice," a 227-page report, with photographs, written by Peter Davies, a New York City insurance broker. The report is based on a study of the killing and injuring of students at Kent State University on May4, 1970.
   These excerpts are reprinted from the Congressional Record. The report was placed in the Record by Congressman William S. Moorhead (D-Pa.) on July 22, 1971.[/italics]
{Photograph of National Guard marching up hill. Students in foreground. John Filo, copyright Valley Daily News, Tarentum Pa. Caption: Guardsmen are marcing from the football practice field to Blanket Hill minutes before the shooting.}
   The National Guardsmen sent to Kent State University in May, 1970 by Gov. James A. Rhodes were taken from active duty in Cleveland where, since April 29, they had been subjected to extreme provocation, harassment, and injuries at the hands of striking truckers. At one point during their confrontation with the strikers the Guardsmen actually came under sniper fire. However, they were not disposed to shoot at men as swiftly as they would at boys and girls under far less dangerous conditions. The shooting at Kent State occurred because a few Guardsmen, perhaps no more than eight to 10, had decided to do so at an opportune moment during their march from the Commons to the football practice field and back again to the Commons. 
   The Guardsmen involved in this decision were members of Troop G. As the return march commenced, it was Troop G which was located on the right flank of the line; 16 men and two officers. During the course of the climb to the Pagoda, some six to nine Guardsmen of Troop G maintained a fairly constant surveillance of the students in the parking lot where they knew, in a few minutes, they would be shooting with willful intent to hit students. The closer they got to the Pagoda, the more they tended to hang back until they became the last knot of Guardsmen to crest the hill.
   Suddenly a single shot rang out, and some eight to 10 Guardsmen instantly wheeled around 135 degrees, raised their M-1 rifles and commenced shooting back down into the parking lot. They had selected an ideal "commanding point to make their stand." It is 19.8 feet above the parking lot. However, the timing was slightly off, and most of the Guardsmen had gone a few yards too far. The sergeant with the .45 pistol who had given the signal to shoot had to lead his men forward to the crest of the hill for better sighting of the students in the parking lot. 
   At the sound of the shot from the .45 the other Guardsmen, mostly members of Company A, first of all looked over their right shoulders and most of them are looking in the direction of the sergeant with the .45 pistol. As the fusillade began, more Guardsmen joined in until some 30 had fired one or more shots. 
   The firing lasted 13 seconds. In or near the parking lot into which the Guardsmen were shooting lay 10 students out of the 13 who were shot. The scene in this area was one of carnage. Sandra Scheuer was bleeding to death; Allison Krause was dying; and nearby Jeffrey Miller lay dead. Not far from the two girls lay William Schroeder, his internal organs almost as badly destroyed as Allison's. Just to the south of the lot lay Dean Kahler, unaware that he would never walk again. Douglas Wrentmore was shot through the knee about 20 feet from Allison Krause, an in the opposite direction Thomas Grace found he had been hit in the back of his left ankle. Further away Alan Canfora, who had waved a black flag at the Guardsmen, was shot through his right wrist and beyond him-more than 500 feet from the Pagoda-lay Robert Stamps and Donald MacKenzie. Not one of these 10 students was closer to the Pagoda than 270 feet. The two students closest to the Guardsmen, Joseph Lewis, Jr., at 60 feet and John Cleary at 110 feet, happened to be in the direct line of fire to the parking lot. Lewis had been deliberately shot by Sgt. L. Shafer, but Cleary was standing sideways to the Guardsmen when the shooting began and probably blocked the path of a bullet destined for the parking lot. He was shot through the upper left chest. 
   The President's Commission on Campus Unrest, as Mr. Eerwin Canham revealed in his letter, could not investigate why the shooting occurred because "of the barriers placed in the way of testimony by the National Guard." The Commission's report clearly indicates the degree to which it doubts the veracity of Maj. Gen. (Sylvester T.) Del Corso and Brig. Gen. (Robert) Canterbury: "[italics]Even[/italics] if the Guardsmen faced danger, it was [italics]not[/italics] a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 Guardsmen certainly [italics]cannot[/italics] be justified. [italics]Apparently[/italics], no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline 
(Cont. p. 18-S, Col. 1)

Saving...

AMERICAN REPORT 17-S F.B.I. Summary: 'There Was No Sniper' [italics] The following are some of the principal conclusions of a summary, prepared sometime in July, 1970 by the Justice Department's Civil Rights division, of the F.B.I. report on Kent State.[/italics] 1. Most persons estimate that about 200-300 students were gathered around the Victory Bell on the Commons with another 1,000 or so gathered on the hill directly behind them. Apparently, the crowd was without a definite leader, although at least three persons carried flags. 2. The crowd apparently was initially peaceful and relatively quiet. 3. Information suggest that it was the Ohio National Guard who determined that the rally would not be held. 4. Just prior to the time the Guard left its position on the practice field, members of Troop G were ordered to kneel and aim their weapons at the students in the parking lot south of Prentice Hall. They did so, but did not fire. One person, however, probably an officer, at this point did fire his pistol in the air. No guardsman admits firing this shot. 5. Some guardsmen, including Gen. Robert Canterbury and Maj. Harry Jones, clam that the Guard did run out of tear gas at this time. However, in fact, it had not. 6. Forty-seven guardsmen, claim they did not fire their weapons. There are substantial indications that at least two and possibly more Guardsmen are lying concerning this fact. 7. The Guardsmen were not surrounded. Regardless of the location of the students following them, photographs and television film show that only a very few students were located between the Guard and the Commons. They could easily have continued in the direction in which they had been going. 8. No guardsman claims he was hit with rocks immediately prior to the shooting. 9. Only one guardsman, Lawrence Shafer, was injured on May, 4, 1970 seriously enough to require any kind of medical treatment. He admits his injury was received some 10 to 15 minutes before the fatal volley was fired. 10. One Guardsman specifically states that the quantity of rock throwing was not as great just prior to the shooting as it had been before. 11. There was no sniper. 12. The great majority of Guards do not state that they were under sniper fire and many specifically state that the first shots came from the National Guardsmen. 13. At least one person who has not admitted firing his weapon, did so. The F.B.I. is currently in possession of four spent .45 cartridges which came from a weapon not belonging to any person who admitted he fired. The F.B.I. has recently obtained all .45's of persons who claimed they did not fire, and is checking them against the spent cartridges. 14. Sgt. Robert James of Company A assumed he'd been given an order to fire, so he fired once in the air. As soon as he saw some of the men of the 107th (Troop G) were firing into the crowd, he ejected his remaining seven shells so he would not fire any more. 15. Sgt. Ruby Morris of Troop G prepared to fire his weapon but stopped when he realized that the "rounds were not being placed." 16. Sgt. Richard Love of Company C fired once in the air, then saw others firing into the crowd; he asserted he "could not believe" that the others were shooting into the crowd, so he lowered his weapon. 17. Four students were killed, nine others were wounded, three seriously. Of the students who were killed, Jeff Miller's body was found 85-90 yards from the Guard. Allison Krause fell about 100 yards away. William Schroeder and Sandy Scheuer were approximately 130 yards away from the Guard when they were shot. 18. Although both Miller and Krause probably had been in the front ranks of the demonstrators initially, neither was in a position to pose even a remote danger to the National Guard at the time of the firing. Sandy Scheuer, as best as we can determine, was on her way to a speech therapy class. We do not know whether Schroeder participated in any way in the confrontation that day. 19. Miller was shot while facing the Guard. The bullet entered his mouth and exited at the base of the posterior skull. Both Krause and Scheuer were shot form the side. The bullet that killed Allison Krause penetrated the upper left arm and then into the left lateral chest. The bullet which killed Sandy Scheuer entered the left front side of her neck and exited the right front side. William Schroeder was shot while apparently lying in a prone position., facing away from the Guard. The bullet entered his left back at the seventh rib and some fragments exited at the top of his left shoulder. 20. Of the 13 Kent State students shot, none, so far as we know, were associated with either the disruption in Kent on Friday night, May 1, 1970, or the burning of the R.O.T.C. building on Saturday, May 2, 1970. 21. Aside entirely from any questions of specific intent on the part of the Guardsmen or a predisposition to use their weapons, we do not know what started the shooting. We can only speculate on the possibilities. For example, Sgt. Leon Smith of Company A stated that he saw a man about 20 feet from him running at him with a rock. Sergeant Smith then says he fired his shotgun once in the air. He alone of all the Guardsmen does not mention hearing shooting prior to the time he fired...It is also possible that the members of Troop G observed their top non-commissioned officer, Sgt. CD Myron Pryor, turn and point his weapon at the crowd and followed his example. Sergeant Pryor admits that he was pointing his weapon at the students prior to the shooting but denies he fired. The F.B.I. does not believe he fired. Another possibility is that one of the Guards either panicked and fired first, or intentionally shot at a student, thereby triggering the other shots. [italics] The following are excerpts from an "Appeal for Justice," a 227-page report, with photographs, written by Peter Davies, a New York City insurance broker. The report is based on a study of the killing and injuring of students at Kent State University on May4, 1970. These excerpts are reprinted from the Congressional Record. The report was placed in the Record by Congressman William S. Moorhead (D-Pa.) on July 22, 1971.[/italics] {Photograph of National Guard marching up hill. Students in foreground. John Filo, copyright Valley Daily News, Tarentum Pa. Caption: Guardsmen are marcing from the football practice field to Blanket Hill minutes before the shooting.} The National Guardsmen sent to Kent State University in May, 1970 by Gov. James A. Rhodes were taken from active duty in Cleveland where, since April 29, they had been subjected to extreme provocation, harassment, and injuries at the hands of striking truckers. At one point during their confrontation with the strikers the Guardsmen actually came under sniper fire. However, they were not disposed to shoot at men as swiftly as they would at boys and girls under far less dangerous conditions. The shooting at Kent State occurred because a few Guardsmen, perhaps no more than eight to 10, had decided to do so at an opportune moment during their march from the Commons to the football practice field and back again to the Commons. The Guardsmen involved in this decision were members of Troop G. As the return march commenced, it was Troop G which was located on the right flank of the line; 16 men and two officers. During the course of the climb to the Pagoda, some six to nine Guardsmen of Troop G maintained a fairly constant surveillance of the students in the parking lot where they knew, in a few minutes, they would be shooting with willful intent to hit students. The closer they got to the Pagoda, the more they tended to hang back until they became the last knot of Guardsmen to crest the hill. Suddenly a single shot rang out, and some eight to 10 Guardsmen instantly wheeled around 135 degrees, raised their M-1 rifles and commenced shooting back down into the parking lot. They had selected an ideal "commanding point to make their stand." It is 19.8 feet above the parking lot. However, the timing was slightly off, and most of the Guardsmen had gone a few yards too far. The sergeant with the .45 pistol who had given the signal to shoot had to lead his men forward to the crest of the hill for better sighting of the students in the parking lot. At the sound of the shot from the .45 the other Guardsmen, mostly members of Company A, first of all looked over their right shoulders and most of them are looking in the direction of the sergeant with the .45 pistol. As the fusillade began, more Guardsmen joined in until some 30 had fired one or more shots. The firing lasted 13 seconds. In or near the parking lot into which the Guardsmen were shooting lay 10 students out of the 13 who were shot. The scene in this area was one of carnage. Sandra Scheuer was bleeding to death; Allison Krause was dying; and nearby Jeffrey Miller lay dead. Not far from the two girls lay William Schroeder, his internal organs almost as badly destroyed as Allison's. Just to the south of the lot lay Dean Kahler, unaware that he would never walk again. Douglas Wrentmore was shot through the knee about 20 feet from Allison Krause, an in the opposite direction Thomas Grace found he had been hit in the back of his left ankle. Further away Alan Canfora, who had waved a black flag at the Guardsmen, was shot through his right wrist and beyond him-more than 500 feet from the Pagoda-lay Robert Stamps and Donald MacKenzie. Not one of these 10 students was closer to the Pagoda than 270 feet. The two students closest to the Guardsmen, Joseph Lewis, Jr., at 60 feet and John Cleary at 110 feet, happened to be in the direct line of fire to the parking lot. Lewis had been deliberately shot by Sgt. L. Shafer, but Cleary was standing sideways to the Guardsmen when the shooting began and probably blocked the path of a bullet destined for the parking lot. He was shot through the upper left chest. The President's Commission on Campus Unrest, as Mr. Eerwin Canham revealed in his letter, could not investigate why the shooting occurred because "of the barriers placed in the way of testimony by the National Guard." The Commission's report clearly indicates the degree to which it doubts the veracity of Maj. Gen. (Sylvester T.) Del Corso and Brig. Gen. (Robert) Canterbury: "[italics]Even[/italics] if the Guardsmen faced danger, it was [italics]not[/italics] a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 Guardsmen certainly [italics]cannot[/italics] be justified. [italics]Apparently[/italics], no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline (Cont. p. 18-S, Col. 1)