page_title: Hunters Point social uprising (1966)
section_title: Shooting the Community Center
hierarchical_section_title: Hunters Point social uprising (1966) / Events / Shooting the Community Center
caption_attribution_description: English: Page 146 from the "128 Hours" report.
context_page_description: The Hunters Point social uprising broke out in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco on the night of September 27, 1966, after San Francisco Police Department officer Alvin Johnson shot and killed Matthew Johnson, a teenager who was fleeing the scene of a stolen car. The National Guard and California Highway Patrol were deployed late that night by Governor Pat Brown, and martial law was imposed until October 1.
context_section_description: SFPD leadership met with community leaders and agreed to let those leaders attempt to broker peace with the restless crowds. However, Hippler points out the leaders had nothing concrete to offer the angry youths: "... There was nothing that they were empowered to offer the "rioters" to induce them to stop "rioting" that was even half as rewarding as the "rioting" itself. The feelings of manhood and power — especially the power to reverse the roles of underdog and top dog relative to the police, who stand for the white community — could not be compensated for by vague promises." By 11 A.M., the crowd outside the Bayview Community Center was up to nearly 200 people, and the unusually hot day (already 86 °F (30 °C) and rising to a record high of 95 °F (35 °C))  was further inflamed by the crowd throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. The crowd at the Community Center rapidly grew to nearly 700 strong as unrest broke out across the city. Riots were reported at Mission High School at noon; another riot was reported at Horace Mann Junior High at 1:18 P.M.; and youths were reported throwing rocks and blocking traffic in the Fillmore. The curfew was reimposed on the Fillmore at 12:07 P.M. On Wednesday, there were 1,200 National Guard troops on patrol with police officers, 1,300 more troops standing by, and 2,000 troops in suburban areas. Troops, many of whom had been mobilized to quell the Watts riots of 1965, were issued orders to use lethal force: their commander, Lt. Col. Harland Smith, instructed troops "If you are attacked or fired upon, shoot to kill. Don't fire over anybody's head."
  Firefighters, staged to protect properties and businesses, came under attack and National Guard units were dispatched to protect them at 4 P.M. At least one contemporary news report filed by the Associated Press stated that sniping (at law enforcement) was "sporadic and 'almost continuous'". At around the same time, reports of looting, thrown rocks, and gunfire were being heard in the vicinity of Third, and before the police stormed the area, community leaders were again given a short time to convince the crowd to voluntarily disperse. The leaders' efforts were unsuccessful, and at 5:43 P.M., a SFPD officer, Jerry Green, was reported as having been injured (the Associated Press reported he was wounded by a sniper). He was subsequently rushed to the hospital.
  Accounts diverge at this point. According to the official 128 Hours report, the officer was "injured by thrown debris", and other personnel near the Bayview Community Center subsequently came under attack, with gunfire and firebombs directed towards them from the Community Center. The police responded by firing two volleys into the air as a warning, but after once again coming under attack, the police shot at the Community Center to suppress resistance. After the gunfire had quelled and officers entered the Community Center, the only evidence that gunfire was directed at the police was in a jacket found behind the right front wheel of a car parked near the Community Center; the jacket had 60 seconal capsules and a single expended .22 cartridge. The Associated Press reported the shooting was in response to a sniper who had taken shelter behind the car, and that sniper had been arrested following the incident.
  According to the SNCC, the incident was touched off by a policeman who, after being struck by a rock, exclaimed "I'm hit, I'm hit." His partner radioed the injury into headquarters without explaining what "hit" meant, and assuming that a police officer had been shot, the police responded in force, pouring bullets into the Community Center for seven or eight minutes. At the time, there were 200 children inside the Community Center, and adults inside directed the children to lie down to avoid the bullets. Seven adults outside the Community Center were wounded by the bullets, including Adam Rogers, a member of the community group Youth for Service, which had formed a Peace Patrol group to try to clear the area of protesters at the time. 128 Hours agrees that seven were injured by gunfire, b
caption: National Guardsmen with a map of San Francisco, partially illustrating the Fillmore curfew area, in the emergency operation center.[1]:146
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