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Detail of Events Leading to Raid and Gun Battle BY EDWARD LEE AND ROBERT WIHEDRICH {Copyright 1969; The Chicago Tribune} The first eye-witness accounts of state’s attorney's police- men who took part in a gun battle last Thursday with a. baod of Black Panthers were obtained exclusively last night by Tus Tripune. .. State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan made the police- men available for interviews refute what he termed an orgy of sensationalism in the press and on television since Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were slain in an exchange of gun fire with detectives in a Vest side apartment building. Hanrahan and his top . gids, Richard Jalovee, chief | of the special prosecutions H division, and Robert Boyle, criminal division chief, also ” made available official police phytographs which they said Edward Hanrahao conclusively proved tie Panthers opened the battle by firing : a shotgun blast thru the apartment coor. Reason for No Gas 1 Hanyvahan insisted that his men could not have fired tear . gas shells into the Mat first since, under the law, they were ~ requircd to knock at the duu in an attempt to serve a secrch warrant. The warrant was issued on the basis of information | that the epartment was a clandestine cache for weapons. Further, Hansahan and his mca ceclared that they had no prior knowledge that Hampton and Clark would be found in the flat. In fact, the identities of the two men were not learned until after they had been killed in the gun baitle, the prosecutor said. sos * $zt. Danicl Groth, who led the raiding party of t4 detcs- tives, Curnished the moct dramatic description of the Latte in Which he described how he and his men fought it out wih the Panthers in the darkened apiriment which joter was ! found to heve been filled with shotguns, rifles, hand guns, “and ample stores of ammunition for the various weapons. | ‘Groth and Jalovee both said the foray on the Panther ‘arsenal had its beginnings Dec. 2, when informants who had |» previously furnished the prosecutor's office with reliable in- formation reported the cache of guns in the first floor flat at 2337 Monroe st. Jalovec had received his information earlier in the day, and Sgt. Groth received his fiom an informant who tele- » phoned his home at 10:30 p. m. The following morning the men met at the state's attorney's office and compared notes. According to the informants, at least three shotguns had been observed in the flat. Neither, however, made any men- tion of Hampton's or Clark's frequenting the apartment, Szt. . Groth seid. At noon, Sgt. Groth and Detectives James Davis and Bill Kelly discussed plans for the raid oa the flat. This scssion was held afler Sgt. Groth had personally surveyed the building and neighborhood and then dispatched Kelly and Davis to do the same. : Reject Early Night Raid . “At first I thought we'd hit the place af 8 o'clock that night,” Sgt. Groth said. “But after talking it over, we decided that would be a bad time, both for our safety and that of cesidents of the area. “It’s a heavily populated neighborhood, so we feared first for the safety of people on the streets at that hour and sec- ondly we feared such a raid might create an incident in the area, which we knew ,was the heart of Panther territory. Our object was to avoid an incident.” On this basis, Groth and the other detectives decided to stage the raid shorily befere 5 o'clock the next morning, _ Thursday, Dee. 4, : ' “This wasn't the first time our squads hod gone aiter ; dangerous individuals,” Sgt. Groth szid. ‘And on the basis of the information we had, it was clear tit we might be run- ning up against dangerous individuals.” | Judge Issues Warrunt At 1:45 p, m. that day, Jalovec obtained a search warrant from Judge Robert Collins of Criminal court, citirg the facts ‘ obtained fram the informants, Then Groth drew a leugthy serics of orders for the 13 detectives who would sccompnay him, spelling out in detail each of their assisantenis in cover- ing and entering the apar‘ment’s front and rear dors, Equip- ment drawn for the raia included a submachine oll, three shotguns, and walkie talkie radios. “ “We dida't take tear gas because of the speerie ntur’s of our mission acd the fact that we figured we'd have the elpaeat of surprise on our side,” Groth said. “Under the Jaw: we had to envei that flat and serve the warrant for a search‘ We cculdy’t just lob tear gas in there and charge.” 3 Fate that afternoon, the other detectives were told to re- UE