◆ SpookStack

port for duty at 4 a. ra, but none other than Kelly and Davis vere told what the mission would be. v At 4 o'clock the next morning, Sgt. Groth doled out the | assigments which called for five men to enter “the front door’ of the apartment, four to enter the rear, three to stay outside“ and cover the front exit, and two to perform similar duties at the rear. The men stationed outside were assigned there not only to prevent anyone escaping thru windows, but to also serve as protection in the event of sniper fire from nearby build- ings, Groth said. Included in the party of 14 policemen were five Negroes. The men arrived at the apartment at 4:45 a. m. Sgt. Groth took Detectives Joseph Gorman, George Jones, Robert Hughes, and Davis to the front door. Meanwhile, De- tectives Edward Carmody, John Ciczewski, Philip Joseph, and , William Kelly approached the rear door while Detectives Jobn Marusich, Fred Howard, and Lynwood Harris covered the front yard, Detectives William Corbett and Ray Broderick - covered the back yard, Extra Squads Requested Just shortly before he arrived at the building, Sgt. Groth said that he radiced from the Chicago police department un- | dercover squad he was driving, asking that the squad opera- tor dispatch marked cars from the Wood street district to the- - behind the door I'd just broken open. Thank God, Groth front and rear exits of the building. “T told them we were about to attempl to serve: a srar- rant,” Groth said. Once at the building, Groth ascended the front staircase or, the exterior with Davis on his left, Behind them weré, Go'man, Jones, and Hughes. The men entered a small hall. way containing two doors, one leading to the 2d floor and the otfer to the Panther apartment. 1 Positioning themselves to either side of the apartment door, Sgt. Groth said he reached over and first rapped firmly with his Jeft hand. When there wag no response, he pounded again, but this time with his revolver butt. “TY heard a voice inside—a male volce—call out, “Who's there?’,” Groth said. “I repliell ‘This is the police. I have a warrant to search the premises,’ ” Again, there was no response, but Groth said he could | hear movement inside, Again he said he pounded on the door, shouling, “Police! Open Up!” “Just a niinute,” Groth said the male voice replied. Suspicious of the delay, Groth sald he ordered Davis to | kick the door open. Davis kicked and the door slammed open to reveal a smalt ante-room with another door leading to the apartment’s living room. That was shut, Then suddenly, as the two policemen entered the ante- room they said a shotgun blast was fired thru the closed living reom door, a charge which later proved to have been a solid rifle load deer slug fired from a 12 gauge shotgun. « The slug pierced the door, ripping splinters from the eutside of the door as it exited and narrowly missed the two | policemen. Photographs of this door were furnished Tie Trisune by Hanrahan as evidence that the Panthers inside the flat fired the opening shot at his men. Plunges Thru Doorway: 4 Davis, who at this moment was just ahead of Sgt. Groth, plunged toward the door, smashing it open with his shoulders. as he dived into the living raom and landed on a mattress aust to the left of the center of the room. , “f saw a woman half lying and balf sitting upright on a ved in a far coiner of the room trying to pump another sh Into a shotgun she held jammed egainst her groin,” Davi aid. “She was about eight feet away.” “In that moment, the woman fired again, the flash of het weapon illuminating her face for Sgt. Groth who was still at the doorvay of the room. “T figured Davis had been ‘hit when I saw him go down,” Groth said. That second shotgun round went right past me as I hugged the door jamb and narrowly missed hitting Hughes who was behind me. I fired two shots at her.” Almost simultaneously, Groth said he ordered Hughes to ‘ summon additional city police on the police radio. He also "told him to notify the men at the rear of the building via walkie talkie radio that “‘these people are shooting in here!” Fires at Armed Woman . Davis said he rolled off the mattress and fired one shot from a carbine ‘at the woman who Jater was identified as ‘Miss Brenda Harris, 18, of 1848 S. Hamlin av. | “She slumped back against the wall with that setae mn in her hands and I spun away and half turned just i timeto spot a guy sitting in a chair with a shotgun in hil. hands,” Davis said, “He was directly bebind me, hidden | fired those shots at the woman. The flash of his revolver spotted the guy for me. "I don’t know for sure if he ever got a shot in at me ‘or ndt. I fired twice and nit him. He sicod up and I jemped up, too, struggling with him until he fell. Then I fell across his body.” This gunman was identified after (he battle as Clark, 22, a Penther leader from Peoria. Meanwhile, Detectives Jones and Gorman plunged into _ the darkened room which was lighted only by the dia glow of a gas space heater in a far corner, opposite of the bed on ft which Miss Harris was Iving. Gormen crouched near the door and threw his flashlight momentarily on Mics Hartis, | wounded in her right thigh, altho she still held the shotgun | in her hands. ’ Discovers 3 More Guns “Y yanked the gun {rem her hands ard hurled it behind me toward the door,” Gorinan said. “In that moment. I also kicked aside a round hassock near the bed on which there were lying three hand guns. The guns spilled onto the floor.” Davis, who by this time had risen to a crouch, luoked down the long hallway toward the rear of the flat just in tims, he said, to see a man duck in aad out of the rear bedroom nearest the kitchen. He had a shoigun. “By then, the guys had broken down the kifchen door,’ Davis said. “Y saw Ciszewski in the kitchen bekind the * gunman and hollered for him to duck as the man fired at least one round into ihe kitchen, Ciszewski ducked zrd the shot mtssed. t ; ° “Hold ycur fire," Sgt Groth said he ordered his men at this point. “Give them a chance to come cut!’ This wart K | the first of five atch orders Greth said ke gave during the Herve fire tight. then charged for the bed. The light hed shewn that she was |