Order To Open Fire In Kent State Shooting?

Man Shot By National Guardsmen Says He Has Tape Of Someone Giving Order To Open Fire

(AP)  A static-filled recording of the 1970 Kent State University shooting that killed four students raises questions not only about whether someone called on National Guardsmen to fire, but also who might have given the order.

The tape was released Tuesday by Alan Canfora, 58, one of nine students wounded in the 1970 shootings. He played two versions of the tape — the original and an amplified version — in which he says a Guard officer issues the command, "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!"

Background noise on the recording made it difficult to understand as it was played for students and reporters in a campus theater Tuesday. The word "point" is clear, followed by the sound of shots being fired. There is no indication on the tape of who said the word.

The tape was given to Yale in 1979 for its Kent State archives by an attorney who represented students in a lawsuit filed against the state over the shooting. Canfora said he found out about it six months ago while researching the shooting.

Some said they wondered what would be achieved by releasing the tape so many years after the shootings.

"I think both sides were at fault," said Brett Wilson, 18, a Kent State student. He said students were trying to provoke the Guard and Guardsmen overreacted with deadly force.

But Canfora said he will turn over copies of the tape to federal and state officials with an appeal to reopen the investigation over how the firing began.

"We're hoping for new investigations and new truths," he said. "We need truth, we need healing."

He said voice analysis might help determine who was speaking on the tape.

"I think we'll know who gave that order," Canfora said.

After an initial investigation, the case was reopened in 1973 when a grand jury indicted eight Guardsmen. They were acquitted of federal civil rights charges the next year.

Larry Shafer, a former Guardsman who said he fired during the shootings and was among those charged, told the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier newspaper on Tuesday that he was unaware of the tape and that "point" would not have been part of a proper command.

"I never heard any command to fire. That's all I can say on that," Shafer, a Ravenna city councilman and former fire chief, told the newspaper. "That's not to say there may not have been, but with all the racket and noise, I don't know how anyone could have heard anything that day."

The FBI, which investigated whether an order had been given to fire, said at the time it could only speculate. One theory was that a Guardsman panicked or fired intentionally at a student and that others fired when they heard the shot.

Canfora said the reel-to-reel audio recording was made by Terry Strubbe, a student who placed a microphone at a windowsill of his dormitory that overlooked the anti-war rally. Strubbe turned the tape over to the FBI, which kept a copy.

Stan Pottinger, who helped prosecute the Guardsmen in the early 1970s as an assistant attorney general with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, said Tuesday from New York that he doubts anything was overlooked then.

He said he could not specifically recall the Strubbe tape, but said audio recordings and film were carefully studied.

Pottinger said justice was served.

"The Guardsmen were acquitted, the case was closed, the families expressed enormous gratitude for the reopening of the case and that was it," he said.

Canfora said only a small portion of the tape was reviewed during various investigations.

Scott Wilson, a spokesman with the FBI in Cleveland, said Tuesday that he was unaware of any request to look into the matter. The Ohio National Guard had no comment on the tape's release, spokesman James Sims said Tuesday.

Strubbe, who still lives near Kent, keeps the original tape in a safe deposit box, said Canfora, who heads a nonprofit organization at Kent State that leads a candlelight vigil every May 4 to mark the anniversary of the shootings. Friday will mark the 37th anniversary.&#

[kilgoregonzo]

jweymouth's comments (along with many other violent, neo-con apologists for Bush and the National Guard MURDERERS) are absurd: "To fire as they did, they must have felt threatened even terrified. Most liberals are provoked to uncontrolled anger by speech they don't like."

Nice try. CONSERVATIVES are the ones who are the first to bellow when someone disagrees, NOT liberals! And these Guardsmen were armed with GUNS, BAYONETS & TEARGAS! The students had rocks. WOW! How freaking "scared" could the killers have been? This was a deliberate act and some Guardsmen even admitted it! Do your research...oh, wait...that's ALSO something Right-wingers never do: look at FACTS! (are you also a big fan of that renowned liar, Ann Coulter?) That's why you're all so upset over this audiotape...it proves what really happened, whether the murderers were acquitted or NOT!

[kilgoregonzo]

jweymouth's comments (along with many other violent, neo-con apologists for Bush and the National Guard MURDERERS) are absurd: "To fire as they did, they must have felt threatened even terrified. Most liberals are provoked to uncontrolled anger by speech they don't like."

Nice try. CONSERVATIVES are the ones who are the first to bellow when someone disagrees, NOT liberals! And these Guardsmen were armed with GUNS, BAYONETS & TEARGAS! The students had rocks. WOW! How freaking "scared" could the killers have been? This was a deliberate act and some Guardsmen even admitted it! Do your research...oh, wait...that's ALSO something Right-wingers never do: look at FACTS! (are you also a big fan of that renowned liar, Ann Coulter?) That's why you're all so upset over this audiotape...it proves what really happened, whether the murderers were acquitted or NOT!

[kilgoregonzo]

jweymouth's comments (along with many other violent, neo-con apologists for Bush and the National Guard MURDERERS) are absurd: "To fire as they did, they must have felt threatened even terrified. Most liberals are provoked to uncontrolled anger by speech they don't like."

Nice try. CONSERVATIVES are the ones who are the first to bellow when someone disagrees, NOT liberals! And these Guardsmen were armed with GUNS, BAYONETS & TEARGAS! The students had rocks. WOW! How freaking "scared" could the killers have been? This was a deliberate act and some Guardsmen even admitted it! Do your research...oh, wait...that's ALSO something Right-wingers never do: look at FACTS! (are you also a big fan of that renowned liar, Ann Coulter?) That's why you're all so upset over this audiotape...it proves what really happened, whether the murderers were acquitted or NOT!

[kilgoregonzo]

jweymouth's comments (along with many other violent, neo-con apologists for Bush and the National Guard MURDERERS) are absurd: "To fire as they did, they must have felt threatened even terrified. Most liberals are provoked to uncontrolled anger by speech they don't like."

Nice try. CONSERVATIVES are the ones who are the first to bellow when someone disagrees, NOT liberals! And these Guardsmen were armed with GUNS, BAYONETS & TEARGAS! The students had rocks. WOW! How freaking "scared" could the killers have been? This was a deliberate act and some Guardsmen even admitted it! Do your research...oh, wait...that's ALSO something Right-wingers never do: look at FACTS! (are you also a big fan of that renowned liar, Ann Coulter?) That's why you're all so upset over this audiotape...it proves what really happened, whether the murderers were acquitted or NOT!

[mikealford3]

What timing for this audio to come out. With all the U.S. protesting something, an action that took place 37 years ago feels a need to surface now. Kinda odd this comes out just a few days after the shooting at Va. Tech. It was kinda funny though when the man claiming to have a audio tape of the order, he held up a compact disc. I don't remember compact discs in 1970. Could it at all be possible that this audio is fake?

[tucano2]

Of course such an order was given. It was given by the Governor of Ohio, where else does the buck stop?

[processorr2]

The government should shoot people when they protest.

Freedom ain't free you liberal neocommies.

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[processor2]

Liberals will weep & wail over "four dead in Ohio", but 75+ dead in Waco by a Federal governmnet using tanks and helicopters!?!?!?!

Where are the bleeding hearts concerning that massacre??Hmmm??

NeoCommies:
I remember Kent State very well, burning campus buildings(arson)is NOT a peaceful demonstration NOR a constitutional right.

....

[RicF964]

The only building that was "burned" was an empty, boarded-up, ROTC building.

I lived in San Francisco for a while and they have street parties. The "natives" have a great time and there's never a problem until the "outsiders" come in. I believe that's what happened here. It was bikers and people from outside the university that started with the bonfires in the street. That being said, if I were more than 5 years old at the time I would have protested the Vietnam war as I would protest the Iraq war today. However, by protesting the Iraq war I risk being blacklisted, labeled a terrorist and never allowed to get on an airplane again. So Bush, et al, have successfully scared the cr*p out of me and now I can only protest with my vote.

[talkingham]

Complete idiot comparing this to Waco - the peaceful Koresh cult Branch Dividians had already shot down officers attempting to serve warrants. As a nation we haven't changed much since Kent State. We've killed thousands of innocent people in Iraq in a totally bogus hunt for WMD and to boost the ego of the neocons and so Bush could parade around in a flight suit touting mission accomplished.

The Koresh loving idiots at Waco had holed-up with automatic weapons pointed at officers for more than 50 days and were given every opporuntity to surrender weeks after they shot down police officers. This is such a wonderful comparison to Kent State where students were literally shot down in cold blood going to class. Just another whitewash investigation controlled by a completely broken justice system controlled by a bunch of lying politicos.

Great job Brownie said to Bush as he allowed FEMA to destroy New Orleans. It's no conspiracy these liars do it all right out in the open just as they did at Kent Sate.

[tuckerndfw]

The lesson to be learned is never argue with a person (or people) who have guns.

The "protest" was not a "rally," it was a "riot." The "protestors" had already committed several crimes and were subject to being arrested. How they concluded they were exempt from the law is unclear, but those who were shot should have had more sense than to mingle with rioters, if they were not rioters themselves.

Having said that, the National Guard was very poorly organized and led by their commanders. Whoever "organized" (it was anything but organized) is equally responsible for the unnecessary deaths.

It is a tragedy and demonstrates why the National Guard and Reserves should not be sent into combat. They should be serving milk and cookies to homeless people. And, without loaded weapons.