Two Wounded In Houston Rally

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 6

Two Wounded In Houston Rally

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

HOUSTON (Texas), July 27. Police wounded two Negroes in an exchange of gunfire in a predominantly Negro area of south-east Houston tonight after a rally of Negro militants, officers said.

The area is near the headquarters of the People's Party 11, a Negro group similar to the Black Panther party. Police had been warned by Negroes against entering the area. The two wounded men were taken to Houston hospitals while police arrested 12 other people outside the party headquarters. Officers said that they would be charged with loitering. Police said that intelligence unit officers, stationed on rooftops after a party rally, were fired on by the two men, who were later wounded. A police helicopter circled overhead with a searchlight beam playing across roof-tops in search of snipers. Hundreds of policemen wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets stood round the perimeter; but none entered the area on foot. About 30 Negroes armed with shotguns and rifles had patrolled the area during the rally. Before the shooting, one of the men carrying a rifle, who refused to give his name to a reporter, said that he was armed for self-defence. “We heard the pigs were going te come in and bust up the headquarters," he said “We aren’t advocating going out and shooting anybody,’* he said. “We’re just exercising our constitutional rights to have guns.” On July 17, two police officers and three Negroes faced

each other with drawn guns for several minutes after an incident involving a boy sell ing newspapers in a street out side the party headquarters Police left. No arrests were made.