Two Police Cars Burned In Riot

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 17

Two Police Cars Burned In Riot

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CHICAGO, June 13. A rock and bottle-throwing crowd, enraged by the wounding of a young man by a police bullet and the apparent biting of another by a police dog, rampaged through a predominantly Puerto Rican neighbourhood yesterday burning two police cars.

At least 29 persons were arrested during the five-hour melee on Chicago’s northwest side.

Arcelis Cruz, aged 20, was wounded in the left leg by a bullet from the gun of a patrolman, Thomas Munyon. Another youth said he was bitten in the right thigh by a police dog. A police officer suffered a leg injury when struck by a car during the fracas. A crowd assembled within minutes. . The first police reinforcements at the scene, gripping night sticks, attemped to push back the crowd. The crowd replied with a volley of rocks and beer cans, forcing the police to retreat. They were forced to leave behind two police cars parked at the intersection. “It was real touch and go.

If the crowd had decided to take us, they could have,” one officer said. The crowd doused the cars with kerosene, battered them with sticks and rocks and set them afire. One was destroyed, the other badly scorched. Finally the crowd was forced behind barricades, where five hours later hundreds remained shouting taunts at the police. The incident began when Patrolman Munyon and Patrolman Raymond Howard an swered a complaint of a gang fight in an alley. They entered the alley and Munyon said he sensed that some one was behind him. He whirled around and found Cruz pointing a .38 calibre revolver at him. Munyon drew his own revolver and shot Cruz in the leg.