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GREENSBORO The City Council welcomes a federal investigation into allegations that documents about the Klan/Nazi shootings were destroyed, according to a vote it took Tuesday.


OK, let's lighten things up a little. Should the intergalactic legal network investigate the police department, too? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.

The state NAACP has asked the FBI to look into the allegation, raised last week by three local ministers, that a member of the Greensboro Police Department ordered the destruction of 50 boxes of information about the controversial shootings.

On Tuesday, Councilman Mike Barber asked the board to approve a motion "welcoming" such an investigation, saying the issue could affect the public's trust in the local police department.

Barber said everyone but the "intergalactic legal network" has investigated the police department, so the city should embrace one more investigation.

The City Council's vote was 5-3, with T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, Goldie Wells and Robbie Perkins opposing the motion. Mary Rakestraw was absent. Bellamy-Small and Wells said they objected to Barber springing his motion on the board without giving them advance notice.

"I'm not going to support stuff that gets thrown at me at the last minute," Bellamy-Small said.

Mayor Yvonne Johnson said she submitted a four-page list of questions Tuesday to police Chief Tim Bellamy about the situation, including the department's policy on destroying old documents.

Meanwhile, the state chapter of the NAACP could get the federal investigation it wants, thanks to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

"We've contacted the (Department of Justice) to look into the matter," said Chris Walker , a spokesman with Burr's office. Walker did not offer what, if any, opinion Burr has on the matter.

Erik Ablin, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the department has "received the materials and are reviewing them."

On Feb. 26, the Revs. Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen and Nelson Johnson said during a news conference that 50 boxes of records pertaining to the deadly shooting were destroyed by police in 2004 or 2005. They said they had taken their complaint to police and city officials in October but nothing had been done.

The ministers alleged that their source, whom they have declined to name, said Lt. Craig McMinn, then a sergeant, ordered the files destroyed. The source said he believed McMinn would be willing to talk about the files with city officials, the ministers said.

The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has sent letters asking the federal government to investigate and to provide witness protection to the ministers' police source.

Letters were sent to U.S. Sens. Burr and Elizabeth Dole, U.S. Reps. Howard Coble and Mel Watt, state Attorney General Roy Cooper and Gov. Mike Easley.

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 Communist Workers Party.

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 members of the Greensboro Police Department and some Klansmen liable for one of the deaths.

Staff writer J. Brian Ewing contributed to this report.

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