Criminal Justice Matters: Richard Gibson Inquest, 1910, Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: December 4, 1910 Comrade Exonerated The coroner's jury in the case of the killing of Richard Gibson last Sunday morning exonerated Marshal Payne and his deputy R. Brewer, having decided the case as justifiable homicide. We would respectfully call the attention of the grand jury to the state of affairs that exist around the site of the killing. It seems that something should be done to suppress crime there. Since the killing reports of more cutting and shooting having taken place are current. From: December 4, 1910 Comrade Tragedy in The Jungles Shortly after 1 o'clock Sunday morning, a negro name Richard Gibson, who is known in Shreveport, was almost instantly killed by Police Officer Brewer near the Tremont & Gulf depot. There were about a hundred negroes, both sexes, who were having a free-for-all fight. Chief of Police J. J. Payne, accompanied by his assistant, R. E. Brewer, went out to make arrests. They found the negro Gibson choking and kicking a woman almost to death and when ordered to throw up his hand, the negro tried to escape and refused to stop; so Officer Brewer shot him a little too high, it being dark, and killed him, the bullet going straight through his back, dying in twenty minutes. The dead negro was known to have a bad reputation, and was said to be well known to the police in Shreveport. A negro boy about 15 years old was cut ten inches across the breast with a razor by another negro about 30 years old the same morning. The section where this tragedy occurred is a perpetual menace to our town. Almost nightly dances are given in the boarding houses and the most of the black colony gather there and the orgies would put to shame the jungles of Africa.