Posts
Kent State shootings ordered, victim says
CLEVELAND – An audio recording made 37 years ago may shed some light on what happened the day National Guard troops shot and killed four Kent State University students at an antiwar demonstration, a survivor said today.
Alan Canfora, who was wounded in the wrist during the confrontation in 1970, said the tape could resolve the mystery of whether a command to fire was issued and may offer a chance for healing for victims and shooters.
"We're not seeking revenge; we're not seeking punishment for the guardsmen at this late date," said Canfora, who wants the government to reopen the case.
"All we want is the truth, because we seek healing at Kent State for the student victims, as well as the triggermen who were ordered to fire. And healing can only result from the truth, and that's all we want."
Four Kent State students were killed and nine were wounded in the clash, which followed several days of Vietnam War protests. In 1974, eight guardsmen were acquitted of federal civil rights charges.
Canfora said he recently requested a copy of the nearly 30-minute tape from Yale University, where a government copy has been stored in an archive.
And it took him this long to request it because?
Nothing like trying to go all Viet Nam, all the time.
1 comment:
Sergeant Lawrence Shafer, the National Guardsman who fired into Joseph Lewis’s abdomen, testified in court that he shot at Lewis because he was giving him the finger. More than 15 feet of Lewis’s intestines were removed in the surgery that saved his life.
Post a Comment