Glenville shootout

Glenville Shootout and Glenville Riots
Glenville Shootout and Glenville Riots
Part of the Black Power movement
	Now-empty lot at the intersection of Auburndale Ave. and Lakeview Rd., where the Ahmed Evans house and Lakeview Tavern once stood
Date	July 23–24, 1968 (gun battle);; July 23–26, 1968 (riots)
Location	Glenville neighborhood, Cleveland, Ohio; 41°31′11″N 81°36′00″W / 41.5196°N 81.5999°W
Caused by	Racial tension, poverty, racial segregation
Methods	Firefight; Widespread rioting, looting, assault, arson, protests, property damage, murder
Parties
Black Nationalists of New Libya	Cleveland Police Department
Lead figures
	Ahmed Evans (also known as Fred Evans) None (gun battle)
Number
17 (gun battle);; Several hundred to more than a thousand (riots)	Not known (gun battle);; 125 police,; 500 civilian patrolmen,; 2,100 Ohio National Guard (riots)
Casualties and losses
Shootout:; 3 killed; 2 wounded; Riots:; 2 killed	Shootout:; 3 killed; 12 wounded; one officer (Patrolman Thomas J. Smith) died of his injuries on March 9, 1993
	1 civilian killed; 2 wounded

The Glenville shootout was a gun battle that occurred on the night of July 23–24, 1968, in the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. Gunfire was exchanged for roughly four hours between the Cleveland Police Department and the Black Nationalists of New Libya, a Black Power group. The battle led to the death of three policemen, three suspects, and a bystander. At least 15 others (police, gunmen, and bystanders) were wounded.

The gun battle sparked the Glenville Riots, which began on the evening of July 23 as the gun battle was winding down, and continued through the evening of July 26–27. During the first day of the riots, the African American mayor of Cleveland, Carl Stokes, refused to allow white police officers to patrol the area. When African American leaders in the neighborhood were unable to quell the violence, Stokes sent the Ohio Army National Guard and the rest of the Cleveland Police into the area to stop the violence. The riots ended early in the morning on July 27. Losses due to the riots were about $2.6 million, and proved to be the political death knell of Mayor Stokes' Cleveland: Now! redevelopment effort. In 1969, Ahmed Evans, tried by an all- white jury was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison.