With 1970 Augusta Riot cold case reopened, what’s next?

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – We’re following new developments in a greater than 50-year-old chilly case.

The Division of Justice reopened the investigation into the killings of Charles Oatman and the six males murdered in the course of the 1970 Augusta Riot underneath the Emmett Until Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.

Monday marked 52 years because the homicide of Black teenager Oatman. Wednesday marks 52 years since a day many Black Augustana will always remember, significantly the households of six Black males gunned down by white law enforcement officials.

Greater than 50 years in the past, Black residents of Augusta stuffed the streets to insurgent towards police brutality after the killing of Oatman, a Black teenager in police custody.

“The afternoon of Could 11, 1970, you’ll’ve seen a few thousand demonstrators from totally different walks of life, Paine Faculty college students, Black highschool college students,” stated Dr. John Hayes, affiliate professor of historical past at Augusta College.

That sparked what Hayes calls a “bloodbath.”

“I say bloodbath due to the six identified victims. The six we all know of it’s clear from proof that they aren’t threatening law enforcement officials. None of them are armed. All six have been shot within the again, and a few shot a number of instances at shut vary,” he stated.

When the mud settled, all-white juries convicted two Black youngsters in Oatman’s loss of life and acquitted a white officer for the killings of the Augusta six.

“We all know what occurred in 1970 was not precise justice,” he stated.

“Clearly, we’re 52 years faraway from the incident, however it provides a glimmer of hope that even at this late date, there may very well be some chance of precise justice by way of the official channels,” stated Hayes.

Hayes is part of the 1970 Augusta Riot Observance Committee and says this chilly case is an acknowledgment that justice was not served in 1970.

“Black individuals have been convicted for various components of the insurrection. Zero white individuals have been convicted,” he stated.

The committee, together with others hope individuals will come ahead and use their voice.

“New voices may come out that we haven’t talked to, that didn’t speak to the DOJ within the Seventies for good causes,” he stated.

The DOJ and the 1970 Augusta Riot Observance Committee urges anybody with info on the killings of Oatman and the Augusta six to share what you might know.

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