MOB AT GAOL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29535, 9 June 1961, Page 13

MOB AT GAOL

Negro Kills Policeman (N Z Press Asxn—CopynQnt) NEW ELLENTON (South Carolina), June 8. Quick police aeti.n averted a possible riot here last nicht after 1580 in<ry whites gathered round a gaol where a negro was being held by police. The negro was held after the town’s police chief had been shot down. Police from nearby areas were mobilised to handle the mob. The murder suspect, Willie Brown, aged 27. was taken from the gaol secretly and moved to an Army stockade. Officers here then began broadcasting over loudspeakers that the prisoner had been taken to another gaol, and the mob began dispersing. The police chief. Mr Thomas Meeks, was killed by a shot-gun blast last night when he attempted to arrest Brown on a charge of beating his wife, police alleged. The woman, who waited in Meeks’ patrol car while the officer entered the house, heard the shot and screamed into the car radio transmitter for help. Deputies rushed to the scene. News of the killing spread like wild-fire through the little town. Within a short time an angry mob was milling round in front of the town gaol. The first airborne negro "freedom riders” tried unsuccessfully today to integrate facilities at the Jackson Municipal Airport. The group of three negroes was promptly arrested.