White Man Shot In Las Vegas Violence

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32114, 9 October 1969, Page 17

White Man Shot In Las Vegas Violence

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LAS VEGAS (Nevada), October 7.

Gunfire crackled on this desert resort spa’s predominantly Negro west side today and one white man was killed in the neighbourhood’s third consecutive day of violence.

Governor Paul Laxalt mobilised units of the Nevada National Guard, and the Mayor, Mr Oran Gragson, declared a state of emergency and reimposed a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on the west side.

A Negro man, in his 20s, shot a door-to-door salesman making a delivery near the heart of the strife-torn area, the deputy police chief, Mr John Moran, said.

The victim, identified as Carl Benson, aged 50, died almost instantly from a

wound in the neck, Mr Moran said.

Mr Moran quoted a witness as saying that the Negro confronted Mr Benson with a gun, that the two struggled and the gun discharged. Gangs of Negroes hurled firebombs, looted and damaged several stores and overturned cars.

Up to 300, said police, roamed the west side yesterday afternoon. A gang shattered windows and upset furniture at a branch office of the Nevada State Welfare Division. The gang scattered when police arrived, later wrecking a shopping centre.

Nearly 100 people were arrested and at least 50 injured since an incident on Sunday night when two police officers stopped a Negro cab driver in a traffic check, authorities said. The west side is 3 1-3 miles from the Las Vegas strip and two miles from the casino centre.

Most of the greater Las Vegas area’s 30,000 Negroes —more than 20 per cent of the city’s population—live in the section, divided from the i main city by railway tracks. Fire-bombings were reported near the shooting scene, and there were increasing reports of window-smashing and stone-throwing. Shortly before imposition of the curfew, about 300 young Negroes congregated at Doolittle Park, in the heart of the 40-block, strife-torn neighbourhood, and demanded to see the Mayor. Mr Gragson did not appear before the crowd, but a Negro municipal Court Judge, Mr Robert Mullen, did. Bottles began flying, and Mr Mullen ran for the safety of a nearby police cruiser. He apparently escaped uninjured.