Thirteen Seconds on the Hill

During a campus protest against a new military incursion abroad, about 2,000 students gathered while state National Guard troops, sent after a weekend of disturbances, advanced on them with fixed bayonets. As the guardsmen withdrew up a hill, some turned and fired about 54 shots in roughly 13 seconds. Four students were killed and nine wounded; no order to fire had been given. Eight guardsmen were indicted under a federal civil-rights law for willfully assaulting students and depriving them of their constitutional right not to be deprived of liberty without due process. Prosecutors argued they fired deliberately to punish the demonstrators. The defence said the men feared thrown rocks and possible gunfire, and moved for acquittal at the close of the government's case.