July 17, 1964 - About 200 Negroes demonstrated in Yorkville today to protest the fatal shooting yesterday of a 15-year-old Negro boy by an off-duty NYPD lieutenant.
The demonstrators, carrying placards proclaiming “Save Us From Our Protectors” and “Stop Killer Cops,” paraded for four hours in front of a school on East 76th Street and near the 67th Street station house.
Led by local officials of the Congress of Racial Equality, they sang civil rights songs, chanted “Police Brutality Must Go,” and “Freedom Now,” and jeered and hooted at some 50 patrolmen who watched their parading.
While the demonstrators were making their protest, Police Commissioner Michael Murphy announced that his department and District Attorney Frank Hogan’s office were making a “thorough investigation” of the killing of the boy, James Powell.
The youth was shot twice by Lieut. Thomas Gilligan in front of a six-story building at 215 East 76th Street. The police said the boy had gone after the lieutenant, who was in civilian clothes, with a pocket knife and had ignored a warning to stop.
They said the youth was emerging from the building after having chased the superintendent into an apartment. The superintendent, Patrick Lynch, was said to have inadvertently sprayed water on young Powell and several other Negro youths as he hosed down the sidewalk in front of the building.
Several witnesses to the shooting have disputed the police version, declaring that the superintendent provoked the boys by saying, “I’m going to wash all the black off you.”
They contended that Gilligan, who is white and is assigned to the 14th Inspection Division Brooklyn, shot young Powell without warning. They also disputed the claim that the youth had a knife in his hand.
Today, Mr. Lynch, the superintendent of the building, gave his version of the events that led up to the shooting.
“I said nothing bad to those boys,” he declared softly in an Irish brogue. “They were standing near the stoop. I wanted to spray the flower boxes. I asked them 10 times to move.”
Mr. Lynch, who owns a gift and record shop at 87th Street and Lexington Avenue, said he had “accidentally” sprayed the youths, and “they got nasty and began throwing things.”
The police at the 67th Street station said the Powell boy had given two knives to friends on the morning of the shooting. They said that when the youth became involved later in the dispute with Mr. Lynch, he asked one friend for a knife and was refused. He then obtained a knife from another friend, police said, and chased Mr. Lynch into the building.
The police reported that one knife had been recovered in the street at the scene of the shooting and that a second knife was taken from one of the boys.
The police said today that young Powell had been in some trouble and had a juvenile record. They said he had been arrested May 17, 1962, as a juvenile delinquent in an attempted robbery. The charges were dismissed on Dec. 1, 1962.
They also said the boy had three youth delinquency cards — two for a “fare beat,” indicating he had attempted to get into a bus or subway without paying fare. The third indicated he had broken a car window.
Youth cards are made out on juvenile delinquents who are not arrested. The youth is generally warned, and his parents are informed.
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