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People v. Newton
The Early Morning Stop
The facts
At approximately 4:51 AM on October 28, 1967, an Oakland Police officer spotted a Volkswagen on his patrol beat that records identified as a known Black Panther Party vehicle. He stopped it at Seventh and Willow Streets, calling for backup. A second officer arrived. The driver identified himself as the Defendant, co-founder and Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party. What happened next was violently disputed. Both officers and the Defendant were shot in the altercation that followed. The officer was hit five times and died before reaching the hospital; a second officer was shot twice and survived; the Defendant was shot once in the abdomen. When other officers arrived, the Defendant and his passenger had fled, and the first officer's service weapon was missing. The Defendant testified at his 1968 trial that the officer struck him, and he then felt a sensation like "boiling hot soup" in his stomach from a gunshot wound. After that, he said he had no memory of anything until he found himself at Kaiser Hospital — he was "unconscious or semiconscious" in the interval. A Defence physician testified that a penetrating abdominal wound can cause a "profound reflex shock reaction" resulting in loss of consciousness.
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