Terrorists ‘broken’

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33386, 19 November 1973, Page 15

Terrorists ‘broken’

(From BRUCE KOHN, N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent.)

WASHINGTON, November 18. Members of a violent branch of the onceprominent militant Negro movement, the Black Panthers, have been gunned down one after the other by United States Government lawmen in a 22month nation - wide investigation. Described by police officers as a loosely-knit amalgam of terrorists which grew up as a faction of the "Panthers,” the Black Liberation Army was linked to the assassinations of at least five police officers and the wounding of about 12 others. Its members proved adept at avoiding grim Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuers working with local police departments, and peri-

odically came out of hiding i to take part in robberies, [ often accompanied by shootouts with police. Their trail of violence led through Florida, New Orleans, St Louis, New York, New Jersey, and California. But one by one leaders of the group fell before police bullets or were captured in surprise raids on their hide-outs. With the slaying in 'New York this week of the 23-year-old Twymon Meyers, wanted for the shotgun killing of two police officers in the city in January of last year, investigators claim to have "broken the back” of the terrorist group. SEVENTH KILLED They said that Meyers was 'the seventh claimed major member of the group to have been killed in shoot-outs with law enforcement officers and that at least 18 other top members of the movement were now under arrest, Meyers’s death was typical

lof the violent end of others [in his group. When : [approached by a detective in the Bronx he drew an auto-j matic pistol, fired that, and; then opened up with a 9mm sub-machine gun. An F.B.L agent, two city policemen, and a passer-by were wounded, but not seriously. Meyers went down in a hail of shots from agents and police officers involved in the stake-out of the area in which detectives had learnt Meyers was living. A girl who had been living with him had been arrested and charged earlier with bank robbery. Meyers was also wanted for questioning about a number of bank hold-ups. Five other Black Liberation Army members were killed in similar circumstances and others now behind bars face a variety of charges involving the slaying of policemen, a grenade attack on a police car. possession of explosives, and bank robberies.