No statute of limitations on murder...: I witnessed a homicide on May 23, 1969

From: "Phillip St. James" <saint0 [at] gte.net>
To: <alcoda [at] co.alameda.ca.us>, <dbrooks [at] co.alameda.ca.us>, <dean [at] ci.berkeley.ca.us>, <Senator.Perata [at] sen.ca.gov>, <Assemblymember.Aroner [at] assembly.ca.gov>
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Subject: No statute of limitations on murder or civil right violations: I witnessed a homicide on May 23, 1969
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 20:06:43 -1000

Ladies and gentlemen:

During the fallout of an anti-war demonstration in 1969 on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley just south of Dwight Way, I witnessed the unprovoked shotgun shooting of an unarmed, young man, James Rector - age 25, by an Alameda County deputy sheriff. There also was no audible or any other warning by these law enforcement officers (euphemistically called "The Blue Meanies" by the younger set in the community then) before this 20 year old was fatally shot.

I am coming forward now at age 51 because I feel that it is my duty to the family of the slain young man and to the community at large. I refrained from coming forward then because I thought it was moot (because law enforcement was involved) and I was afraid that I would also be shot and killed.

The sheriff's dept. announced at that time that the young man was shot because he was part of a group that was throwing rocks at them. I can say with absolute certainty that no rocks were being thrown and that this depiction did not happen. In fact, the group that this young man was part of was disoriented and lost. These 10 or so young people (mostly males and a few females) fearfully rushed but did not run toward Shattuck Avenue from Telegraph Avenue onto a side street and into a backyard that I recognized as being a dead end. This happened immediately after the group was told either by sheriff's deputies or Berkeley Police to disperse -- ostensibly because of a hastily called curfew that afternoon.

At that instant as they emerged from the backyard and continued West toward Shattuck Ave., a shotgun blast exploded and some of the kids were hit -- all in the back. One was hit very badly. I still vividly recall the back of his white or light-colored shirt with a huge circle of bright red. It was blood! I couldn't believe this was happening! I wondered if I would be shot next.

The group was in shock: screaming, murmuring, moaning, crying, yelling and I was juxtaposed - safe in my car. I offered to take this young man in my MGB coupe to Herrick Hospital's emergency room but the group declined. I guess they didn't know or trust me at that instant. I'm not sure they knew this young man either who died while they were trying to find their way in time to the closest hospital. New traffic barriers were placed throughout that neighborhood making it difficult to navigate quickly and successfully if one wasn't familiar with the barrier locations and the maze it created.

I was 18 years old. I was in my car. I was there simply trying to see what was going to happen to the young people that day. I had neither a loose or strong affiliation to any political or social action group at all. Telegraph Ave. had been closed to foot traffic and to automobile traffic. I had no strong opinions about the Vietnam war at that point.

I hope criminal and civil investigations can be re-opened here. I am willing to testify and to speak with investigators here in Hawaii and at any legal proceeding in California. I think that the surviving family members of this dead man should be notified of my willingness to come forward and testify under oath.

I do not know his name. I only watched him dying in the arms of his associates that day. I feared for my life and safety. those were the days of the FBI's Cointelpro program. Law enforcement misconduct was deadly for non-whites and for left wing adherents or those who wrongly identified as such. The 1st Amendment and many constitutional protections were suspended or simply ignored by those in or associated with power in those days.

I now work for the Defense Department and feel a responsibility to come forward and tell the truth. A murder, a homicide needlessly occurred before my eyes that day. I was never the same again insofar as respecting law enforcement, the justice system, and generally believing their sides of stories.

I witnessed not only a senseless law enforcement killing but also a subsequent media spin campaign that blamed the victims and pretty much all of Berkeley for bringing on this deadly firepower by the sheriff's department. A few moments after this young man was fatally shot, another young man was also shot while watching this horror on a nearby Telegraph Avenue rooftop. He was permanently blinded by a deputy in the same group of sheriff's deputies.

I was recruited to become a Berkeley police officer by then Acting Chief Charles Plummer in 1968. I declined. I graduated from St. Mary's College High School in'67 and was a football co-champion in the old Catholic Athletic League with Charles Plummer's son, Larry, who is now a captain in the Mountain View police department.

I also was a classmate (same class) of Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson at St. Columba's elementary school in Oakland in 1959 through 1963.

I then went on to graduate from UC Berkeley and then on to Stanford for graduate work.

Let me know how I can further help... My hope is that this perpetrator is still alive, in this country, and can be brought to justice. (I have also copied Congresswoman Barbara Lee with this letter as her Web site and e-mail have been compromised and are now inactive.)

http://www.peoplespark.org/planning.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/gifs/brigade.jpeg
http://www.peoplespark.org/noshoot.JPEG
http://www.peoplespark.org/1000park.JPEG
http://www.peoplespark.org/bothofyu.JPEG
http://www.peoplespark.org/shopping.JPEG
http://www.peoplespark.org/filmbust.JPEG
http://www.beauty-reality.com/peoplespark.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/69gall2.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/69gall1.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/69gall6.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/69gall5.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/69gall4.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/69gall8.html
http://www.peoplespark.org/69gall9.html
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/copap6a.htm
http://berkeleyinthe70s.homestead.com/files/D-1971.htm
http://npc.press.org/wpforal/dav2.htm
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificapanthers.html#1968
http://www.ummah.net/albayan/Images/coindoc7.gif
http://www.legendarysurfers.com/sr/chapters/08-death_of_kevin_moran.txt
http://www.dnai.com/~cburch/rosereview.html

Thanks,

-phillip

PS - Also on May 23, 1969, The Who's rock-opera album Tommy is released.