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This month's Forgotten Battle is...
The SLA Shootout
Intro
The SLA Shootout took place on May 17, 1974. It was a two hour gunfight between six members of the Symbionese Liberation Army and officers of the LAPD. This shootout was fought on East 54th Street within Los Angeles, California, and would leave a lasting impression on the city's law enforcement forever.
Part I
The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) is believed to have been formed in the year 1973. The man responsible for it was an ex-convict named, Donald DeFreeze. While he was incarcerated, DeFreeze met a student from UC Berkeley named, Willie Wolfe. Together, they decided to form a far-left marxist group that could fight against the corrupt and racist American society. On March 5, 1973, DeFreeze escaped from Soledad Prison and fled to Oakland, California. There, he met another far-left radical named Patricia Soltysik who had attended UC Berkeley. It was here, that the DeFreeze formed the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Before long, the SLA gained almost dozen members. Their mission was to spread left-wing ideology which included: marxism, anti-capitalism, feminism, and vanguardism. Each member adopted a new name, purchased a small arsenal of weapons, and prepared for their first act of rebellion. DeFreeze decided that the SLA's first major act would be to assassinate a public figure. The target would be the Superintendent of Oakland Public Schools, Marcus Foster.
Marcus Foster was a highly respected public figure and the city's first black superintendent of an urban school system. However, his alleged support for a student identification program convinced DeFreeze and the SLA that Foster was a race-traitor and supporter of fascism (Foster was actually against the program). On November 6, 1973, Foster and his Deputy Superintendent (Robert Blackburn) were leaving a school board meeting when several gunmen opened fire on them. Foster was shot eight times and died at the scene. Blackburn was severely wounded but survived.
Members of the SLA immediately sent letters to the media claiming responsibility for the assassination. In spite of their justification for killing Foster, the public (especially college students) reacted with scorn and outrage. Two months after the murder, two SLA members were stopped and arrested by the police. While the two men were being taken into custody, the police discovered weapons and SLA fliers within their car and began a state-wide manhunt for the group. But the SLA got wind of the arrests and quickly set fire to their safe-house before the police could arrive.
Part II
The negative reception to the assassination of Marcus Foster convinced DeFreeze to change his tactics. He decided that kidnapping an important figure would bring much needed news coverage to the SLA. This time, their target was a UC Berkeley undergraduate named, Patricia "Patty" Campbell Hearst. Patty Hearst was the daughter of newspaper publisher Randolph Apperson Hearst and the granddaughter of the famous congressman, William Randolph Hearst. Due to her status as the heiress to the Hearst family fortune, DeFreeze was convinced that her kidnapping would invite nationwide news coverage that would spread the mission of the SLA.
On February 4, 1974, three members of the SLA broke into Patty Hearst's apartment and abducted her at gunpoint. As DeFreeze had predicted, her kidnapping made headlines across America. Two days after the abduction, a letter appeared to media from the SLA. In it, they claimed responsibility for Hearst's kidnapping and ordered that all their following demands be printed in all newspapers. Six days later, a recording was delivered to the KPFA radio station in Berkeley. It was revealed to have been made by Patty Hearst herself. In it, she claimed that she was being treated well and asked the police not try and look for her. Over the next two months, four more recordings were released. In them Patty seemed to be growing more hostile and gravitating towards sympathizing with her captors. Fifty-nine days after her abduction, a fifth tape was recovered. Here, Patty Hearst denounced her family, pledged her allegiance to the SLA, and called herself, "Tania".
On April 15, two weeks later, five members of the SLA broke into the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco and stole over $10,000. Upon reviewing the banks surveillance tapes, investigators discovered that one of the robbers holding up the bank employees was none other than Patty. A few days later, a sixth tape was recovered where Patty admitted to willingly participating in the robbery and reiterated that she was not brainwashed. With Patty Hearst now confirmed to have become a full fledged member of the SLA, local police and the FBI decided to ramp up their efforts to track down and arrest the organization.
Part III
Three months after the Hibernia Bank robbery, the SLA was operating in the city of Los Angeles. On May 16, two of its members (Bill and Emily Harris) entered a sporting goods store and were caught shop-lifting. While they were fighting with a security guard, Patty Hearst (who was acting as a lookout) pulled a rifle and fired warning shots at the shop's overhead sign. This enabled Bill and Emily to run to their car and drive away with Patty in the backseat. Police were alerted to the scene and later found the vehicle abandoned. Upon searching the vehicle they discovered a parking ticket with an address. Suspecting the SLA, the LAPD converged on the house. Although, it was abandoned when they arrived, the police found evidence that confirmed the SLA was in the area.
The next day, the LAPD received a 9-1-1 call claiming that several armed people had taken up residence at 1466 East 54th Street in downtown Los Angeles. It was the break they were waiting for. Within minutes more than 400 cops and a handful of FBI agents surrounded the neighborhood. Captain Mervin King ordered his officers to evacuate the houses on 54th Street and slowly converge on the target house. The cops then split into two groups. One group was led by Sergeant Albert Preciado approached and deployed by the front of the house. The second group (led by Sergeant Ron McCarthy) moved to the house's back entrance.
With the house now surrounded, an officer grabbed a bullhorn and shouted, "Occupants of East 54th Street, this is the Los Angeles Police Department speaking. Come out with your hands up!". He repeated this order a total of 18 times but got no answer. After observing the SLA members barricading the doors and arming themselves with rifles, the SWAT teams decided to start firing tear gas. As soon as they did, the SLA members opened fire, and the gunfight began. The SWAT officers were armed with semi-automatic AR-15 and AR-180 rifles. By contrast, the SLA members were armed in M-1 carbines and a BAR that had been converted to fully automatic fire. Several officers would later report seeing hand grenades being tossed at them from the house.
For the next two hours, the SWAT officers traded fire with the SLA. The balance finally tipped at 6:45 PM, when the house caught fire. This was likely due to all the burning teargas canisters fired into the house. The fire forced the SLA members to retreat to a crawlspace under the house. From, its entrance they resumed firing at the police who fired back. At this moment, one of the SLA members (Nancy Ling Perry) exited the house. As she crawled on her hands and knees, she pointed a pistol at the officers and fired. Her shot missed. The police immediately returned fire and killed her on the spot. Then a second SLA member (Camilla Hall) exited the crawlspace and raised a revolver at the SWAT officers. She was killed with a single shot to the head. Her body was then pulled back inside the crawlspace by another SLA member. Soon after this, the shooting stopped and the LAFD moved in to put out the fire.
Epilogue
After the fire was out, the police moved in and found the bodies of six members of the SLA (five in the crawlspace, and one on the ground outside). They were identified as, Donald DeFreeze, Willie Wolfe, Nancy Ling Perry, Angela Atwood, Camilla Hall, and Patricia Soltysik. All had died from a combination of gunshot wounds, burns, and smoke inhalation. By contrast, the LAPD had suffered no casualties.
The entire incident was covered live by multiple news organizations. With the use of brand new portable mini-cams, this was the first ever police-involved shootout to be broadcast on live television. Among those to watch the shootout on live TV was Patty Hearst. After the shop-lifting incident, she along with the Bill and Emily Harris had switched vehicles and driven out of Los Angeles to a hotel in Anaheim. Together, they watched the showdown on the television in their hotel-room.
For the SLA, the shootout was the beginning of the end. On September 18, 1975, Patty Hearst along with Bill and Emily Harris were captured in San Francisco. Patty was sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in the Hibernia Bank robbery. Twenty-one months later, she was released after President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence. She was later granted a full pardon in 2001 by President Bill Clinton. Bill and Emily Harris were sentenced for their roles in her kidnapping.
Today, the two hour shootout between the LAPD and the Symbionese Liberation Army is remembered as a great triumph of American law enforcement against organized crime. It showed what the police were capable of and served as a deterrent for any future anti-government organizations who believed themselves capable of operating outside the law. Never again would any home-grown guerrilla networks wreck such havoc within the United States of America.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-18-me-59109-story.html
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