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Arrests for assault (13)
Details of the circumstances in which police made arrests for assault can be found for only four of those taken into custody. Two cases involved police officers who testified they had seen an individual in the crowds on the street commit assault. Detective Raymond Gill said he saw James Hughes appear from behind the cars parked on the street, look around, and throw the rock that hit Detective Roge as he stood with other officers in front of Kress' store. It was because the alleged attack occurred when no one else was throwing objects at police or the store that Gill claimed he was able to see Hughes throw the rock and keep his eyes on the man as he pursued him through the crowds. Those details are contained in the District Attorney's case file; that record does not exist for the other three cases. Newspapers reported Patrolman Conn saw a group attacking Timothy Murphy and somehow singled out Paul Boyett, calling on him to halt, and shooting him in the shoulder when he did not. It is also possible that Boyett was hit when Murphy simply shot at the crowd, his injury subsequently leading Conn to focus on him. Both Hughes and Murphy claimed they were bystanders and were not involved in the assaults. The police officer's identification in a third arrest was more straightforward. Patrolman Irwin Young alleged Harry Gordon assaulted him while being arrested for trying to speak to a crowd on 125th Street.
A fourth arrest took place after the assault, when Herman Young claimed he saw the man who assaulted him when both were being treated at Harlem Hospital, and had one of the patrolmen there arrest Isaac Daniels. That identification may not have held up to scrutiny as a trial jury acquitted Daniels. However, Young had been hit by glass when a window in his store was smashed, so the jury may also have judged the circumstances did not amount to an assault.
The only reference to other evidence contributing to arrests for assault was in the arrest of Hughes: Detective Gill frisked him and found five stones in his pocket. Hughes said he had picked them up after he encountered crowds on 8th Avenue in case he needed to protect himself. Police only arrested four men during the disorder for possessing weapons, in three cases finding those weapons on men arrested for riot, breaking windows, or looting.