Editing Jackson State killings (section)

== Timeline ==
On the evening of Thursday, May 14, a group of around 100 black students had gathered on Lynch Street (named after the black [[Reconstruction era]] US Representative [[John R. Lynch]]), which bisected the campus. African-American youths were reportedly pelting rocks at white motorists driving down this road—frequently the site of confrontations between white and black Jackson residents.

Tensions rose higher when a rumor spread around campus that [[Charles Evers]]—a local politician, civil rights leader and the brother of slain activist [[Medgar Evers]]—and his wife had been killed, according to ''Lynch Street: The May 1970 Slayings at Jackson State College''. The situation escalated when a non-Jackson State student set a dump truck on fire."<ref name="Jackson State: A Tragedy Widely Forgotten">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126426361|title=Jackson State: A Tragedy Widely Forgotten|work=npr.org|date=3 May 2010 |access-date=15 September 2016|last1=Wyckoff |first1=Whitney Blair }}</ref>

The police responded in force. At least 75 police officers from the city of Jackson and the [[Mississippi Highway Patrol]] attempted to control the crowd while firemen extinguished the fires.<ref name="Presidents Commission on Campus Unrest">[https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED083899 The Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest],  W. Scranton, Chairman, US Government Printing Office, 1970, pg. 422-424. Retrieved August 15, 2009 from ERIC.ed.gov</ref> After firefighters left the scene shortly before midnight, the police moved to disperse the crowd that had gathered in front of Alexander Hall, a women's [[dormitory]].

Advancing to within 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) of the crowd, officers at roughly 12:05&nbsp;a.m opened fire on the dormitory.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/16/archives/fbi-investigating-killing-of-2-negroes-in-jackson-two-negro.html|title=F.B.I. Investigating Killing Of 2 Negroes in Jackson: Two Negro Students Are Killed In Clash With Police in Jackson|work=New York Times|date=May 16, 1970|access-date=23 August 2020}}</ref>

The exact cause of the shooting and the moments leading up to it are unclear. Authorities say they saw a [[sniper]] on one of the building's upper floors and were being shot at from all directions. Later, two city policemen and one state patrolman reported minor injuries from flying glass.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970"/> An FBI search for evidence of sniper fire found none.<ref>''President's Commission on Campus Unrest'', pp. 442–444</ref> Students later claimed that they had not provoked the officers. The gunfire lasted for 30 seconds, with more than 460 shots being fired by a reported 40 state highway patrolmen, who used shotguns from a distance of 30 to 50 feet.<ref name="Jackson State: A Tragedy Widely Forgotten"/> Every window was shattered by gunfire on the narrow side of the building facing Lynch Street.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970"/>

The crowd scattered, and a number of people were trampled, or cut by falling glass. Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior, and James Earl Green, 17, a senior and miler at nearby [[Jim Hill High School]], were killed, and twelve others were wounded.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970"/> Gibbs was fatally shot near Alexander Hall by buckshot, and Green was killed behind the police line in front of B. F. Roberts Hall, also by shotgun.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}