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Benjamin Bell shot
Shot in front of his home, Bell was likely a bystander, watching the events on Lenox Avenue. Police responded to the outbreak of looting by firing their weapons. Given the evidence of both looting and police responding to it at the time, and the lack of any evidence that blacks on the streets during the disorder used guns, Bell was likely hit by shots fired by police – as were the others reported as shot and wounded.
Other than a white police officer, the four other men shot and wounded in the disorder were black. None of the sources that record the assault on Bell identify his race. His address does not help identify him. The block on which Bell lived included white as well as black residents. While the hospital records did not record the race of any of those treated, the two papers that included Bell in their lists of the injured typically did. As was common at the time, the New York American and the New York post identified the race of the black individuals in their lists, but not the whites, making it likely that Bell was white. If Bell was white, it is surprising that his shooting did not attract more attention from the white press.
The hospital record described Bell’s injury as a “gunshot wound in the left thigh,” serious enough to warrant the ambulance called to treat him taking him back to Harlem Hospital. The New York American reported simply that he had been shot in the leg, while the New York Post more dismissively listed the gunshot wound as “superficial.”
No one was arrested for shooting Bell, as was the case with all of those shot and wounded (Detective Campo’s alleged assailant was shot and killed).
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This page references:
- “List of Casualties in Riots,” New York Post, March 20, 1935, 6.
- “Riot’s Casualties," New York American, March 21, 1935, 2.
- "Medical Attendances, 19-20 March 1935," Harlem: Mayor's Commission on Conditions (1), Subject Files, Box 167, Folder 5 (Roll 76), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).