Mayor Forms Task Force In Vineland Panel To Probe Relations Between Police And Minorities

August 31, 1989|By Andrew Maykuth, Inquirer Staff Writer

VINELAND, N.J. — As outrage subsided yesterday over a police officer's killing of a black man Sunday, Mayor Harry Curley created a task force to investigate strained relations between the police and the city's minorities.

Curley ordered the task force to review police procedures in response to Monday night's disturbances in Vineland's central business district. The disturbances were set off after Samuel Williams, 24, was shot and killed by a white police officer, who said Williams had attacked him with an iron bar.

Story continues below.

More than 200 people packed a one-room country church in Newfield yesterday afternoon to attend the funeral for Williams.

Afterward, his body was taken to the state Medical Examiner's Office for a second autopsy. The additional autopsy - the county medical examiner had performed a post-mortem Monday - was ordered by the Attorney General's Office, which is investigating the shooting.

Vineland, an agricultural trading community of 54,000 people in Cumberland County, remained outwardly calm yesterday as businesses continued replacing

windows broken when about 200 youths and young adults went marauding on Monday night.

Last night, police reported an attack on a news crew from a Philadelphia television station. A three-person team from WPVI-TV, Channel 6, was assaulted by a crowd of about a dozen people, and reporter Dann Cuellar, 35, was admitted to Newcomb Hospital in Vineland with head injuries, officials said.

The incident began as Cuellar was taping an interview at 8:10 p.m. at the

intersection of Fourth and Pear Streets and the crowd became unruly.

Cuellar was admitted to the hospital with a broken nose, and he also received stitches to his right eye and the back of his head, a hospital spokesman said. David Wadsworth, a WPVI soundman, was treated for minor injuries and was released. Windows of the rented news van were smashed, a cellular phone was stolen and other equipment was damaged, according to Ned Warwick, news director at the station.

Police said they arrested a suspect, Allen Fleming, last night in connection with the assaults and were seeking others in the incident.

In addition, three other people were arrested last night on Landis Avenue on charges of failure to disperse, but there were no incidents of vandalism, according to a city spokesman.

1 | 2 | 3 | Next »
|
|
|
|
|