On May 4, 1970 the Ohio National Guard opened fire into a busy college campus during a school day. A total of 67 shots were fired in 13 seconds. Four students were killed. Nine students were wounded.
Just in time for the anniversary of the Kent State shootings:
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- A man who was shot in the wrist when National Guard troops killed four Kent State University students during an anti-war demonstration says he has found an audiotape that reveals someone gave a command to fire.
..just before the 13-second volley of gunfire, a voice on the tape is heard yelling, "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!"
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/01/kent.state.ap/index.html
Troops were not returning fire on a sniper. There was no sniper.
4 Kent State Students Killed By Troops
By John Kifner
Special to The New York Times
Kent, Ohio, May 4, 1970
Students here, angered by the expansion of the war into Cambodia, have held demonstrations for the last three nights. On Saturday night, the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps building was burned to the ground and the Guard was called in and martial law was declared.
Today's rally, called after a night in which the police and guardsmen drove students into their dormitories and made 69 arrests, began as students rang the iron Victory bell on the commons, normally used to herald football victories.
A National Guard jeep drove onto the Commons and an officer ordered the crowd to disperse. Then several canisters of tear gas were fired, and the students straggled up a hill that borders the area and retreated into buildings.
A platoon of guardsmen, armed- as they have been since they arrived here with loaded M-1 rifles and gas equipment - moved across the green and over the crest of the hill, chasing the main body of protesters.
The youths split into two groups, one heading farther downhill toward a dormitory complex, the other eddying around a parking lot and girls' dormitory just below Taylor Hall, the architecture building.
The guardsmen moved into a grassy area just below the parking lot and fired several canisters of tear gas from their short, stubby launchers.
Three or four youths ran to the smoking canisters and hurled them back. Most fell far short, but one landed near the troops and a cheer went up from the crowd, which was chanting "Pigs off campus" and cursing the war.
A few youths in the front of the crowd ran into the parking lot and hurled stones or small chunks of pavement in the direction of the guardsmen. Then the troops began moving back up the hill in the direction of the college.
Students Cheer
The students in the parking lot area, numbering about 500, began to move toward the rear of the troops, cheering. Again, a few in front picked up stones from the edge of the parking lot and threw them at the guardsmen. Another group of several hundred students had gathered around the sides of Taylor Hall watching.
As the guardsmen, moving up the hill in single file, reached the crest, they suddenly turned, forming a skirmish line and opening fire.
The crackle of the rifle volley cut the suddenly still air. It appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer.
Some of the students dived to the ground, crawling on the grass in terror. Others stood shocked or half crouched, apparently believing the troops were firing into the air. Some of the rifle barrels were pointed upward.
Near the top of the hill at the corner of Taylor Hall, a student crumpled over, spun sideways and fell to the ground, shot in the head.
When the firing stopped, a slim girl, wearing a cowboy shirt and faded jeans, was lying face down on the road at the edge of the parking lot, blood pouring out onto the macadam, about 10 feet from this reporter.
Visit Kent May 4 Center at http://www.may4.org.
Excerpt from Juice Magazine interview with MARK MOTHERSBAUGH
by Steve Olson
How did Devo start?
Devo started when Gerry and I became friends in college at Kent State. We were there for the shootings.
You were?
Yeah, Gerry was standing about 15 feet away from Allison Krauss, the girl that got her head blown off. And we had all been kind of active. I didn't want to go to Viet Nam, to be honest. And my brother Bob was still a sophomore in high school and he demonstrated with us. After the shooting that summer, the FBI came to our house, like Men in Black in a 1969 black Dodge Dart. They showed my mother pictures of my brother Bob burning the American flag while firemen tried to put out the fire at the Roxy Building at Kent State the day before the killings. We were all kind of involved and it had an impact. It influenced us a lot at the time. It probably had a lot to do with our view of the world - calling our band Devo - which was a contraction for de-evolution. That's how the band started. Once Gerry and I started writing together, it just made sense. There was no one we could talk into being in the band besides our family so we recruited our younger brothers.