Gunfire Exchanged In Third Outbreak At S.N.C.C. Office

AP / New York Times 9sep1968

WASHINGTON. Sept. 8 (AP) —Shots were exchanged across the alley behind the Washing-ton office of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee this morning in the third out-break of violence there in as many days.

The violence is an apparent culmination of a dispute between the group's local president, Lester McKinnie, and for-mer allies who want him ousted.

This morning at least six shots were fired at the office, and an equal number were re-turned by "guards" inside the building.

Early Friday and late yesterday other shots were fired at the office, which is at 2208 14th Street, NW. Firebombs apparently were thrown yesterday. There were no injuries and minimal damage in the three incidents.

According to Mr. McKinnie, the trouble began Wednesday when three men, whom he identified as members of the California-based Black Panther party, entered the office and demanded that he turn it over

to them. -

In Oakland, Calif., Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther "minis-ter of information," said there were no Black Panthers in Washington and denied that the Panthers were trying to take over the student committee.

He said that an alliance between the committee and the Panthers had been broken and that the Panthers "are not interested at all" in the committee.

S.N.C.C. Leader Arrested

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee said yesterday that its national chair-man, Phil Hutchins, was among seven persons arrested in St. Louis following a rally Saturday night. Mr. Hutchins—along with John Wilson. national deputy chairman of the Black Anti-War Anti-Draft Union; Charles Koen, a student committee representative, and four members of the St. Louis-based Black Liberators—was charged with "unlawful assembly and making inflammatory statements that could lead to illegal activities"

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