Late into the night, police received a call of gunfire near the Algiers Motel complex. In the days prior to the Algiers incident, Officers Jerome Olshave and Fred Toto had been killed during the riots, setting the stage for a police force that was likely upset and on edge as they approached the Algiers call. The Algiers, was a noted location of what some would consider to be “shady,” or dangerous, often attracting unsavory characters like prostitutes, drug dealers, and petty criminals. Before delving into the details of the Police actions, it is best to understand who exactly was present at the motel that night:
-Carl Cooper, one of the men killed in the incident. Cooper, a 17 year old at the time of the incident, was in the back of the motel with friends firing off a starter pistol. The pistol carried no actual bullets but carried the noise of an actual gunshot, the impetus for the call to the Algiers. Cooper and Pollard were friends, ending up at the Algiers together to visit friends.
-Aubrey Pollard, one of the men killed in the incident. A 19 year old at the time of his death, Pollard was at the Algiers visiting Cooper and friends from the Vietnam War. The men had come to the Algiers to escape the violence of the riots and have a space to themselves.
-Fred Temple, one of the men killed in the incident. 18 years old at the time of the Algiers Incident, Temple was at the Algiers following a performance of The Dramatics, a musician group of whom Temple was friends with many of the band members. He, like Pollard and Cooper, had come to the Algiers to escape the riot after The Dramatics performance was interrupted by the riot at the Fox Theater.
-Lee Forsythe, Michael Clark, and James Sortor: Friends of Carl & Aubrey
-Roderick Davis and Cleveland Larry Reid: Friends of Fred.
-Juli Hysell and Karen Malloy: Two white girls; presumed to be sex-workers by police.
A combination of the Detroit Police Department, National Guardsmen, and Guards on hand stormed the Algiers . As they broke through the rear of the building, Carl Cooper was the first individual encountered by the police forces. According to the accounts of witnesses during interviews and court testimony, no demands were given to Cooper, as a rain of shotgun blasts killed him instantly.
On the other back entrance of the motel, a force of officers kicked their way in and found Fred Temple laying in bed. While it is unclear if he was sleeping, laying down, watching TV or an array of other passive activities, what is known is that he was shot during the rush into the house, also by a shotgun. The chaos of the initial rush into the motel ended with Cooper and Temple dead from multiple shotgun blasts.
Afterward, the police searched the floors and rooms one by one, looking for the shooters and guns that prompted the call in the first place. The remaining group were lined up against a wall, as the diagram below shows:
After the initial siege of the motel, the group of lined up friends inhabitants were interrogated with immoral and sadistic tactics. The officers leading the way of the interrogation were Ronald August, Robert Paille, and David Senak. Karen Malloy recounted that the hell began with the officers beating and pistol-whipping the men down the line, repeatedly hitting them and making them get up. One of the cops then threw a knife and told the men, “here, defend yourself…pick it up so I can blow your goddamn head off.” None of the men would pick the knife up, knowing full well that if they had, they would be killed on a trumped up charge of self-defense. While the men were wise not to take the bait on the knife, they endured severe beatings for their refusal. Lee Forsythe was noted by Cooper’s mother as having wounds so deep in his head, she could see his skull.
“They were going to shoot us one at a time” Michael Clark would later testify. After the efforts to get the men to pick up the knife so the officers could have a reason to murder them in cold blood, they amped up the interrogation tactics. Officer Senak began the show of cruelty by first taking the two white women out of the line and tearing their clothes off. “Why you got to fuck them? whats wrong with us, you nigger lovers” Senak yelled. Senak made the women pull each others clothes off of one another, tearing at them himself as he got frustrated with their stalling. Before moving on, the women were left tattered in nothing but their underwear.
As Senak, Paille and August continued their abuse of the women, more officers from the national guard began spilling into the motel. Sortor testified that the men in uniform were not only stripping women down and beating the men, “some of them were just standing back. Laughing at us.” After the women were stripped down and denigrated, the officers began what was known as the “death game.” Lee Forsythe stated, “They started killing us, one by one.” Officer Senak began with Roderick Davis, dragging him into one of the rooms and closed the door behind them. Warrant Officer Theodore Thomas followed Senak in. Thomas testified “Senak told the man to lay on the floor and he fired a round through the wall…he didn’t shoot him, he scared him…then he winked at me.” Davis was then told not to move or they would kill him, leaving him alone in the room afterward. As Warrant Officer Thomas walked out of the room, he was asked if Senak killed the man, “yes” he replied.
“Want to kill one?” an officer then asked Warrant Officer Thomas. “Yes” Thomas stated, as he knew the point of the game was to scare the people left in line in the hallway behind them. Michael Clark was next. “Lets see, (Ronald) August told the officer to take me in the room and shoot me.” Thomas took Clark into the room, laid him down, and fired a shot out the window, telling him if he moved, he would be killed. After Clark, Pollard would be the next target and the “death game” would become a cruel execution for men and women left with the officers.
Senak then handed a pistol to August, saying “Do you want to kill one now?” Ronald August grabbed hold of the gun and then dragged Aubrey Pollard into a rear room of the Motel. “I can’t recall what was said (between Senak and August) as he gave him the gun…this was supposed to scare them” Officer Thomas later testified. Officer August apparently did not understand the ‘game’ with Pollard though. After tossing Pollard to the ground, Pollard screamed out “Don’t shoot!” A shot was heard. Pollard was dead.
After Pollard’s execution, the additional guardsmen and officers who showed up after the siege realized how severe the situation had become. The men began leaving the civilians to the original officers, stating “this is (your) business.” After the rest of the civilians were left with the officers, Senak and August commanded them to walk forward, leave the building, and never look back, threatening to gun them down if they did. The officers had hoped the chaos of the riots and the initial call would be enough to hide their despicable actions, but there would be a major investigation in the weeks after the incident as to what really happened.
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