This page was created by Anonymous.
Albert Yerber arrested
Newspaper stories contained few details of the shooting, even as they employed a range of dramatic and emotive language - for example, the New York World Telegram reported a “nest” of snipers “trying to pick off” policemen. Stories in the New York World Telegram and Brooklyn Daily Eagle did offer the name of the officer allegedly targeted by Alston and his companions, Patrolman Jerry Brennan of the Morrisiana station, and the same dramatic account that a bullet whistled past his ear as he stood on post at Lenox Ave and 138th Street. Taking cover, he saw the men on the roof of the six-story building at 101 West 138th. Soon after police reinforcements arrived and rushed to the roof to arrest the men. One other story, in the Home News, identified Brennan, but cast him not as the target of the shooters but as one of the police who responded. In a radio car assigned to the area with his partner Patrolman McGrady, Brennan “heard the shots and sped to the scene. At the radio car's approach the four snipers [standing in the doorway] ran to the roof of the building.” This story provides the key detail that no guns were found on Alston and his companions.
Alston did not appear in court, likely because of his injury, but on March 20 Yerber and the other two men were charged with disorderly conduct, according to the Washington Heights Magistrates Court docket book. That offense did not involve any violence, reflecting that no guns were found in their possession; instead it focused on the men's presence in the area. It does not appear police had any evidence that Yerber, Loper or Johnson had created any sort of disturbance, as Magistrate Ford released all three men. Given that outcome, it is possible police officers confused where the shots fired at them came from, or perhaps mistook some other noise for gunfire. Without any evidence of an assault in the sources, these events are treated here only as arrests.
This page has tags:
This page references:
- New York Penal Law, § 722-724: Disorderly Conduct
- "5 dying and Scores Wounded as Race Riots in Harlem Subside," Home News, March 20, 1935 [clipping]
- "Mobs Rove Harlem After Riot; 1 Dead, 100 Hurt in Harlem Riot; Snipers Routed, Mobs Rove Area," New York World-Telegram, March 20, 1935 [clipping]
- "Snipers Fire on Police From Harlem Rooftop," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 20, 1935, 1, 2.
- Washington Heights Magistrates Court docket book