On January 10, 1972, a demonstration by a group identified as members of the Nation of Islam from Chicago on North Boulevard in Baton Rouge turned into a deadly shootout when police moved in to disperse the crowd. Among those killed was 25-year-old Thomas Davis, a Black man who was fatally wounded during the exchange of gunfire. The violence also killed two East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s deputies, Ralph DeWayne Wilder and Ralph Gayle Hancock, and another demonstrator, Samuel Upton, and left numerous others injured. A city-wide curfew was imposed after the incident.

Authorities arrested several men associated with the demonstration and charged them with murder and inciting a riot. The initial trial produced convictions with 21-year prison sentences; those convictions were later overturned by the Louisiana Supreme Court for legal errors, leading to a retrial that again resulted in convictions related to the January shootout. Does anyone have additional information about the events that day or knew Thomas Davis?