Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-02-06

~~oo---~-~--~e~-~---7~--, Ezell Tho two houses were connect ed by 2 one-story hall or passage way, but tfis was partitioned m the center Motorcycle Officer Middle brock resided in the house facing on Texas street. while the house facing on the alley, between Teyas and Alabama, Was occupied by Vicks aNd other colorcd people. Built
 over the river bank, beneath the lower floor. there was basement and eycavated in the basement was cellar, with walls and roof of concrete. Into this the negro des- cended when the house was fired.
 Because of the nature of his refuge, the negro was able to keep the beseigers perplexed. He would fire first from downstairs and then from upstairs. He fired at Officer Poole with shotgun and rifle, shat . tering the sash of building from which Poole was shooting.
 Deputy Sheriff McBurnett and Jim Reidinger, former deputy sheriff and constable, cut their way thru three walls of the place and were just about to step into another room when Vicks cut loose with his shotgun. The officers faces were powder burned. The officers believed the negro upstairs, and if he had wait cd moment longer before the shooting he would have killed or badly wounded both.
 Several Open Up.
 Sheriff C. M. Nichol was directing his men from the alley about 20 feet from the negro's refuge. The offi- cers got several shots at the bla .k as he walked by windows, but wheth- CT any of these hit the target IS not known.
 Darkness was coming rapidly, and the officers decided on desperate measures. While the sheriff and his deputies and citizens kept watch, Mayor Hollis posted cordon about the riverside of the building, with instructions to keep all others away Shortly after o'clock Clarence E. Philpot entered the basement near the cellar and placed charge of dynamite, with the intention of wrecking the structure. The charge was fired, but nothing happened. Those near could hear some one walking about in the place.
 The house was set on fire at 7:45. The west end was set afire first the intention being to do no more damage than necessary. For an hour and five minutes the flames cracked. Several times some of beseigers per- ceived Vicks and opened fire. Once, the negro came out on a porch and fired several times. A fusillade drove him back.
 There he goes! He's coming out on the other side," Jim Reidinger was heard to call out as he per- ceived the negro running in the house basement, when the flames became hot. Rifles, and pistols cracked, and shotguns roared. Then for few moments, only the voices of those on the bank and the crack ling of flames could be heard by the watchers in the river bed.
 Just before g o'clock at $50 to be exact-the negro was seen by the men on the Texas street side to emerge from his hiding place-pre- sumably the cellar-and make to- ward the river bed w. T. Pate Jr. Johnny Steele, Frank Terry, Charles Bozart and others to the northeast of the building opened fire. The ne- gro dropped, but was up again in q moment, grasping his shotgun ready to shoot. He fired as he stepped out of the flames, and into the view of the men in the river bed on both sides of the building and of some of the spectators on the bank This charge from the negro's gun is the one believed to have hit Terry and Bozart, and the hat of Pate. As the negro turned to lock toward the west, Sam Trimble, Street Commits sioner Hart and several others on the west, side, together with Pate, Steele and a score or more others shot deliberately, while many more fired indiscriminately. The negro dropped to his knees, rose again and ran about Is feet, falling prostrate While bullets rained about him, he turned over half sat up and fired again. That was his last shot. When the crowd surged forward through mud and refuse, Vicks was dead.
 Some excited citizens fired into the prostrate body, which was caught by the feet dragged up the bank and then to Second and Main. In the negro's pocket was found can of snuff, perforated with bullet holes, shattered bottle of vaseline, and several shotgun shells.
 Mann was wounded as he was leaving the building after second trip. The first time he reported,