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Here's the latest from this morning's press conference at New Light Baptist Church:

* Three Greensboro pastors say Sgt. Craig McMinn of the Greensboro Police Department's Special Intelligence Unit ordered police officers to destroy 50 boxes of files related to the Klan-Nazi shootings of Nov. 3, 1979. The files were destroyed in 2004 or 2005, sometimes after the Truth and Reconciliation requested police files relating to the shootings. The ministers said they do not know what exactly is in those files.

* The ministers said that their source of information is an active-duty Greensboro police officer who was one of at least four officers ordered to destroy the police department documents. The ministers declined to name their source.

* Ministers noted that former police chief David Wray was running the department when the files were destroyed. However, the ministers said they don't know if the former chief was involved in the document destruction or if he was ever aware that the incident took place.

* The pastors said they shared this information with former Mayor Keith Holliday and City Manager Mitchell Johnson on Oct. 22, 2007. They later talked with current police Chief Tim Bellamy and had a second meeting with the city manager. The pastors said the city did not investigate. The ministers said that by making their claim more widely known they hope that media and public pressure will compel the city to investigate.

* The pastors who spoke at today's media briefing were the Rev. Nelson Johnson of Faith Community Church, the Rev. Cardes Brown of new Light Baptist Church and the Rev. Gregory Headen of Genesis Baptist Church. All three hold offices with the Pulpit Forum, and Brown is president of the Greensboro Branch of the NAACP.

Here is the story that ran in today's News & Record:

GREENSBORO Three local ministers say 50 boxes of material related to the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings were destroyed during former police Chief David Wray's administration.

The ministers plan this morning to name the officer who gave the order. In a news release issued Monday, the ministers said they will provide "detailed information" about the police files at 11:30 a.m. today at New Light Baptist Church, 1105 Willow Road.

"The name of the police officer who gave the order to destroy the materials will be shared during the media briefing," the release said.

The ministers making the allegation the Revs. Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen and Nelson Johnson didn't return telephone calls Monday. Brown is the pastor at New Light.

The news release said the ministers received the information from an unnamed active-duty police officer.

Johnson, a former member of the Communist Workers Party, helped organize the "Death to the Klan" rally where the shootings took place and was present during the violence.

He also helped create the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a seven-member panel that spent two years investigating the shootings and the aftermath.

City leaders have known "for some time" about allegations the documents were destroyed, a spokeswoman said Monday. She said it is more appropriate for City Manager Mitchell Johnson and police Chief Tim Bellamy to comment after this morning's news conference.

The news release doesn't connect the alleged destruction of documents directly to Wray, other than to say it happened during his administration. Locke Clifford, Wray's attorney, said Monday that "when a specific allegation is made, we will make a specific response."

The Klan-Nazi shootings happened the morning of Nov. 3, 1979, just as the march was forming in the Morningside Homes community. A heavily armed caravan of Klansmen and Nazis drove into the area and confronted anti-Klan marchers, many of whom were members of what became the CWP.

During the ensuing gunfire, five anti-Klan marchers were killed and 10 others wounded. All criminal defendants later were acquitted in state and federal criminal trials. A civil jury found the city and some Klansmen liable for one of the deaths.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent two years researching the shooting and the events surrounding it, and released its findings in 2006.

Besides blaming the Klansmen and Nazi shooters, as well as the local police, it found that the march's organizers, members of the CWP, share some responsibility, "albeit lesser."

It recommends the city and the police department apologize for the department's role in the shootings.



Contact Margaret Moffett Banks at 373-7031 or margaret.banks@news-record.com