SAN FRANCISCO — The racial tensions of the civil rights era marched back into this city Tuesday when eight former radicals -- some now husbands, grandfathers and community organizers -- were arrested in connection with the 1971 shotgun slaying of a white police officer.
The men, including a real-estate appraiser and a Los Angeles County employee both living in Altadena, were mostly taken into custody during early-morning raids in California, New York and Florida. They are accused of being part of what investigators called a five-year conspiracy that started in 1968 to kill police officers in the United States.
A joint state and federal task force identified seven of the arrested men as former members of the Black Liberation Army, a violent outgrowth of the Black Panthers.
San Francisco Police Sgt. John V. Young was gunned down Aug. 29, 1971, at a neighborhood police station. At the time, the Bay Area was a nexus for radical groups of all stripes.
Eight days earlier, a bloody prison riot after a foiled escape by a Black Panther engulfed San Quentin State Prison. Two inmates and three guards were killed. Attacks on police officers nationwide were being blamed on black militants.
Over 36 years, authorities doggedly pursued the Young case. Some suspects married and started families. Others committed crimes and went to prison. Two years ago, three went on a nationwide speaking tour to decry the renewed investigation. One died last month.
In the last two years, about a dozen suspects, including some of those arrested Tuesday, were called to testify before a grand jury in San Francisco and in recent months investigators sought DNA samples.
On Tuesday, 35 years after Young's death, charges finally were filed.
Charged in Young's killing were: Ray Michael Boudreaux, 64, and Henry Watson Jones, 71, both of Altadena; Richard Brown, 65, of San Francisco; Francisco Torres, 58, of Queens, N.Y.; Herman Bell, 59, and Anthony Bottom, 55, both incarcerated in New York state; and Harold Taylor, 58, of Panama City, Fla.
Another man, Richard O'Neal, 57, of San Francisco, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder police officers. He was not charged "as an active participant" in the Young killing, authorities said.
A ninth suspect, Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth, 62, was charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and aggravated assault on a police officer in connection with Young's killing. He was still at large Tuesday.
