Revelations from Kent State audio tape prompt congressional inquiry

The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is launching a congressional inquiry into an altercation and apparent pistol fire that occurred about 70 seconds before Ohio National Guardsmen shot students and antiwar protesters on May 4, 1970.

The violent clash and four shots from a .38-caliber revolver were captured by a student's tape recorder, placed in a dormitory window. The sounds of the altercation recently were discovered by Stuart Allen, a forensic audio expert who analyzed the 40-year-old tape at The Plain Dealer's request. The newspaper reported Allen's findings Friday.

Kucinich, who chairs a House sub-committee with oversight of the FBI and Justice Department, said the paper's account prompted his inquiry.

"Kent State had such a grave effect on this nation, we owe it to the American people to have a thorough inquiry," he said in an interview. "This story about new evidence makes it mandatory that we gather information and ask questions.

In a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Kucinich asked the bureau to produce documents that might shed light on its relationship with, and knowledge of, a Kent State student named Terry Norman.

Norman's actions on May 4, 1970, are the object of much speculation and dispute, and some people contend Norman may have triggered the Guard to fire.

Some details of the altercation on the tape match elements of a scuffle the pistol-waving Norman was involved in, although he insisted it took place after the Guard's gun volley, not before, as the recording indicates. Norman also told investigators he did not fire his weapon.

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KSU News Service Terry Norman, wearing his gas masks, takes photos on the Kent State campus May 4, 1970.

Norman was on campus the day of the protests, wearing a gas mask and and a .38-caliber pistol for protection. He was photographing demonstrators and said he regularly sold the photos to the FBI and the Kent State police department.

Some witnesses claim they saw Norman fighting with several students and waving or pointing his gun, although no one reported seeing him shoot. Accounts differ on whether the confrontation happened before or after the Guard gunfire.

TV footage shortly after the shooting shows Norman running toward a cluster of Guardsmen and police, pursued by a man who yells that Norman has a gun and has shot someone. The TV film shows an emotional Norman hand his pistol to a Kent State patrolman and describe an assault by protesters.

The TV reporter and sound engineer say they saw a Kent State detective open the pistol's cylinder and heard him exclaim off-camera that it had been fired four times. Officers' written statements contended it was fully loaded and unfired.

An FBI ballistics test reportedly determined the gun had been fired since its last cleaning, but could not pinpoint when.

Kucinich, a Democrat whose district includes Cleveland, has asked the FBI to provide any employment and payment records involving Norman, the results of any ballistics tests of his pistol, and any evidence that might indicate the bureau helped him get a job.

Several months after the Kent State shootings, Norman began working for the Washington, D.C., police department as a narcotics agent. His precise whereabouts today are not known.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said late Friday the bureau would review Kucinich's request and "respond accordingly."

Kucinich said he will ask the sub-committee's attorneys to locate and interview Norman, and that he may be asked to testify if there are congressional hearings. "What we find [from the FBI] may determine whether we go forward with a hearing," Kucinich said.

The audio tape also contains what Allen and fellow forensic acoustics expert Tom Owen believe is a command ordering the Guardsmen to prepare to fire.

A Plain Dealer report on that discovery in May prompted wounded Kent State student Alan Canfora to request that the Justice Department re-investigate the shootings.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department's civil rights division said by email Friday that the division is "currently reviewing" that request.

Terry Gilbert, a Cleveland attorney who is advising Canfora, said their primary interest is the apparent order for the Guard to fire, but that the new revelations about the confrontation and pistol shots "add an interesting dimension because of the role the FBI might have played in the chain of events."

"Now, more than ever, we need to get to the bottom of it," said Gilbert, who hopes to meet with the head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, when Perez speaks at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law next Tuesday.

Laurel Krause, whose sister Allison was one of four students killed by the Guard gunfire on May 4, also supports a new review examining all aspects of the case.

"Let's put together all of the pieces of the puzzle," said Krause, who will take part in a live, webcast "Kent State Truth Tribunal" in New York this weekend. "I think all the right things are going to happen, for once. There have been a lot of wrongs. It's time."