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An unidentified officer yelled "Ladies and gentlemen!" and as if on cue, the police let loose at the crowd with shotguns, pistols and rifles. They raked the building and the squirming students on the ground. One student said that those in front of the dormitory "were trying to get inside. Blood was everywhere." Another, Red Wilson Jr., who was hit in the leg, recalled: "I was standing in front of the dorm. All I could think of was to start running and I got hit. Nobody had a chance." The firing continued for 35 seconds; about 150 shots were fired. Then someone yelled "Cease fire!" and the shooting stopped.
When it was over, two students lay dead: Phillip L. Gibbs, 21, a Jackson State student and the father of an infant son, and James Earl Green, a high school student and track star. Twelve other students were wounded.
Sniper Fire. Police at first stoutly maintained that they had evidence of sniper fire, but later refused all comment. Whether they had evidence or not, the officers went far beyond simple crowd control or self-defense. Even though rocks and bottles were thrown at the officers, this provided no sound reason for the wholesale raking of a crowd with gunfire. The police apparently had come armed only for shooting and had no less lethal equipment. No tear gas was used; there was no warning given to the crowd. Their shotguns were loaded with deadly 00 buckshot rather than antiriot birdshot. They also showed little hesitation to use their weapons; the five-story building was spattered indiscriminately with gunfire from top to bottom. Every window on that end of the dorm was shattered. No effort had been made to fire warning shots or shoot over the crowd's heads.
Black College President John Peoples Jr. shut down the school for the remainder of the term, angrily declaring that "this will not go unavenged." Jackson's white mayor Russell Davis appointed a biracial commission to look into the incident. The Justice Department dispatched federal investigators to Jackson, and Attorney General John Mitchell said he would go there personally. At week's end the tense campus had been vacated by state police and was being patrolled by city police and the National Guard. Stung by criticism of trigger-happy Guard action at Kent State, patrolling Guard officers in Jackson announced that none of their weapons were loaded.
Augusta: Race Riot No. 1
It was a classic confrontation of blacks v. cops, vintage Watts and Newark. At its height, bands of angry blacks roamed the ghetto streets, smashing, burning and looting. Flames from some 50 fires cast an orange glow in the night sky, while the crackle of gunfire, the screams of police and fire sirens tore the air. During the night, six blacks died from gunshot wounds; all of them had been hit in the back. Scores more were injured, three critically, and hundreds were arrested. The first race riot of the '70s had come to Augusta, Ga.