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Possession of a weapon in the courts (1)
All four men were charged with a misdemeanor and sent to the Court of Special Sessions for trial. Jose Perez, the man arrested for possession of a weapon, allegedly had a gun in his possession. There are no details of the circumstances of his arrest. Perez was identified as white in both newspaper lists and the Harlem Magistrates court docket book. Arthur Killen allegedly had a knife in his possession when arrested for breaking windows. So too did Hashi Mohammed when arrested for the same offense. Police arresting Raymond Easley for looting allegedly found a razor.
Arthur Killen was sent to the Court of Special Sessions to face two charges, malicious mischief for breaking windows and possession of a weapon. The outcome of his trial is unknown. Prosecutors did not charge Hashi Mohammed with breaking windows, the offense for which he had been arrested, but instead with disorderly conduct. Magistrate Ford convicted him of that charge. The judges in the Court of Special Sessions came to a different decision on the charge of carrying a dangerous weapon, acquitting Mohammed. Given that outcome, and that he was among those reported as injured, likely during his arrest, the allegation he had a weapon may have been made by police to justify that violence. Raymond Easley was sent to the grand jury for looting, who voted to indict him on a charge of burglary. However, that indictment was later dismissed. A day before that decision, after police had spent more than two weeks investigating the case, Magistrate Renaud sent Easley to the Court of Special Sessions for trial on the charge of possessing a weapon. The outcome of that trial is unknown.