Opinion ID: 2295861
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The District Building

Text: On March 9, 1977, at approximately 2:30 p. m., three hours after the B'nai B'rith takeover and one and a half hours after seizure of the Islamic Center, Muzikir and Nuh entered the District Building and proceeded to the fifth floor. Within 20 minutes, Muzikir and Nuh had taken 15 men and women as hostages, Officer Cantrell and Marion Barry (then Councilman-at-large) had been shot and wounded, Maurice Williams (a reporter) had been shot and killed, and Robert Pierce (a law student/intern) had been shot and paralyzed for life. Muzikir was carrying a .12 gauge shotgun which protruded from underneath a garment. Nuh carried a machete. Muzikir approached Special Police Officer John Austin, pointed the shotgun at Austin's face, and ordered him to proceed to room 507, the reception and outer office area of Sterling Tucker (then District of Columbia Council Chairman). As they walked through the area  a machete at Austin's neck  Nuh and Muzikir ordered the receptionist and several others who were waiting there for meetings to move into room 507 and lie down on your stomachs and not to move a muscle. Otherwise he'd blow our brains out. Several other men and women who were at their desks in room 507, or later entered, were taken captive. All were ordered to lie on their stomachs on the floor. Nuh tied them with cord from the venetian blinds, with telephone cord, and with masking tape.
Officers Cantrell and Yancy had been alerted to trouble on the fifth floor. Armed with .38 caliber revolvers, they walked toward the double doors leading to the City Council offices. Officer Cantrell opened one of the double doors, and Yancy spied a man in a long, blue coat standing with his back to them. Suddenly, the gunman (later identified by several hostages as Muzikir) turned and fired the shotgun. Cantrell fell wounded to the floor; Yancy jumped onto the elevator and rode down to the first floor. Cantrell was bleeding profusely from the right side of his face. (Ballistics evidence introduced at trial showed that Muzikir's shotgun had been loaded with double 00 buckshot  the kind found in Cantrell's face.) Austin testified that he also had seen Muzikir twirl[] and fire[] at the doorway through which Austin could see the figure of a uniformed man. Shortly thereafter, other police officers came to the fifth floor and, amidst more gunfire, managed to carry Cantrell downstairs to an ambulance. At the same time that Officers Cantrell and Yancy were approaching the double doors on the fifth floor, Stephen Colter (a reporter for the Washington Afro-American) and Maurice Williams (a reporter for radio station WHUR) had just stepped off the elevator onto the fifth floor. Colter testified that the two reporters saw the officer begin to open one of the double doors when a shotgun blast hit Maurice Williams. Williams exclaimed to Colter, I'm shot! and stumbled to the floor. Colter took shelter in a nearby office, then turned and saw that Maurice Williams had fallen on his back and was lying in a pool of blood. Colter also saw Cantrell lying on the floor in blood. Colter ran to check on Williams but found no signs of life. He then immediately fled to the press room and remained there for five to ten minutes until the police arrived. Ballistics evidence introduced at trial demonstrated that five pellets of double 00 buckshot had been fired from Muzikir's shotgun and struck Williams in the chest, killing him instantaneously. Marion Barry happened to ride the elevator to the fifth floor with Officers Cantrell and Yancy. He had started to talk with a friend in the hallway when he saw the officers walking toward the City Council offices. Barry suddenly heard a gunshot and felt a sharp stinging sensation in my chest, and . . . I just instinctively knew I had been shot, and my chest started burning. Barry dived behind some columns of the building, then stumbled into an office and told the persons there, I've been shot. Call the ambulance. Police Officers Malcolm Hall and Carroll Hebron were alerted by a radio call to trouble at the District Building. They rushed to the building and took the stairs to the fifth floor. Officer Hall saw Maurice Williams lying on his back with his eyes open, perfectly still. Hall ran to him and placed his hand on Williams' chest but detected no signs of life. Officer Hebron began to help Officer Cantrell, who was covered with blood and wounded in the head and face. As Officer Hall started across the hallway toward Hebron and Cantrell, a gun was fired from behind the double doors; the shot struck glass in the Mayor's office. Other police officers arrived and started sliding heavy oak tables into the hallway as a barricade. Shotgun blasts continued to come from behind the double doors; the officers responded with gunfire. Several hostages  Alan Grip, Elsie Young, and Cordelia Wilkins  were inside the room with Muzikir. They testified that Muzikir was shooting toward the hallway, and that a volley of automatic gunfire entered the room. They described the confusion and the screaming by hostages. The same three hostages also testified that Muzikir, after firing at the police, turned and pointed his shotgun toward the hostages and fired into the back of Robert Pierce. Alan Grip testified that during the automatic weapons fire, right near the end of it, I saw the man with the shotgun [Muzikir]. . . point his shotgun in the direction of Mr. Pierce and myself. And I heard his shotgun go off. I saw the gun jump in his hand, and I saw Mr. Pierce's face contort. Other hostages testified that they heard Pierce groan and cry out in pain. Pierce himself testified: I felt that I was hit . . that I appeared to be paralyzed from the waist down, and that I was bleeding . . from my right arm. [10] Meanwhile, the police had been returning Muzikir's fire. Some used shotguns, loaded with No. 4 buckshot, but none used double 00 buckshot, the kind found in the wounded  Officer Cantrell and Robert Pierce. The firing broke most of the glass surrounding the double doors. One officer observed persons lying on the floor, tied up, and immediately yelled for everyone to cease fire. After the firing had stopped, appellants sent out Cordelia Wilkins to explain the situation inside the offices to the police; she did not rejoin the hostages. Alan Grip asked Muzikir if Pierce could leave to get medical attention. Muzikir agreed, but Pierce could not move his legs. Muzikir said he would let the wounded man go if two naked policemen came in to get him, but the police refused to agree to those terms. The gunmen let two women drag Pierce out. They pulled him just to the double doors, released him, and then escaped through the open panel. A police officer quickly picked up Pierce and carried him outside. Eleven hostages remained for the duration of the siege. Soon after the hostages had been herded into the room, Muzikir directed Nuh to get the hostages' wallets  Let's see if we have somebody important! Appellants were disgusted that they had not taken (then) Mayor Walter Washington, Marion Barry, or someone else of importance. (Muzikir, however, later expressed satisfaction when he heard over the radio that Barry had been shot.) During the siege, some of the hostages were forced to take turns sitting on a chair placed inside the door. They were ordered to report on police activity and told they would serve as a human shield. Mrs. Thomas, who sat in the chair for some time, was told that [i]f the policemen made any move to try to come into our office to rescue us, and we didn't tell the gunman . . . [the person in the chair] would get [his] first bullet. The gunman stood by that door with the gun aimed at my head for the entire time I sat in that chair. On March 10 at about 7 p. m. Elsie Young untied herself and ran to safety when she saw Muzikir lay down his gun to move a desk into position for cover. Another hostage, John Cockrell, was released that evening after his hypertensive condition had worsened.
Muzikir and Nuh continually repeated the same demands made by Khaalis at B'nai B'rith and by the three appellants at the Islamic Center: they demanded that the murderers of the Hanafi family be delivered for execution, and that the movie about Mohammad be stopped. On Thursday, Alan Grip called a radio or television station and repeated verbatim a statement given to him by Muzikir. The essence of the statement was that we are all Hanafi Muslims. We are prepared to die. I am the son of Hamaas. This is not a personal grudge, and any attempt by the police to rush the room would put our lives and the lives of the hostages at B'nai B'rith in extreme danger.
During the initial takeover at the District Building, Alan Grip asked Muzikir if the takeover there had anything to do with what was happening at the other buildings. Muzikir responded, Yes, and then explained the relationship between the B'nai B'rith and the Islamic Center, as it related to the Muslim faith. Muzikir frequently referred to Khaalis as his father (in the spiritual sense, as there was no blood or marital relationship). Muzikir told the hostages that appellants felt the justice system had done nothing to avenge those persons who had killed and injured Khaalis' family. Alan Grip, hoping to get the women released, asked if the Hanafi religion did not teach them to respect women and children. Muzikir responded with statements about the murders and shootings of the Hanafi women and children and said that no one cared about them, so why should we give a damn about the women here? At one point, the police shouted into the room the telephone numbers at B'nai B'rith and the Islamic Center and said that Hamaas wanted appellants' phone number at the District Building. Then, in the early evening of the first day, Nuh answered the telephone and was heard to say, Yes, Hamaas; Yes, Hamaas. Then he vowed, To the death, Hamaas, any time, any place, Hamaas. According to several hostages who testified Nuh regularly handled the telephone calls. After one call he told Muzikir, We are to do nothing until we receive further instructions from Hamaas. One witness testified that on more than one occasion the man with the shotgun [Muzikir] said, `If anything happened, if the police came, heads would roll at the Islamic Center and B'nai B'rith as well as the District Building.'
Early Friday morning, March 11, Muzikir spoke with someone on the telephone for the first time since the takeover. When asked by one of the hostages if they were to be released, Muzikir nodded affirmatively. The hostages heard a police officer refer to the negotiations and give directions that the hostages stay where they were and that the gunmen lay down their weapons in the doorway. Muzikir replied, There's only one gun. Muzikir and Nuh stepped out and were arrested. The police rushed in to free the hostages. The police recovered a number of weapons, all operable, from the fifth floor of the District Building. From room 507 they recovered a .12 gauge shotgun loaded with five live rounds of ammunition, several knives, two machetes, a curved sword, and a tote bag with 25 live rounds of .12 gauge ammunition. They recovered seven spent shells from inside the offices; six were identified as having been fired from the shotgun.