MIAMI -- A 35-year-old ex-convict working as a restaurant cook has become the first white person charged with murder as a result of the three days of rioting in Miami that began May 17, 1980.
William Paul Hembree, 35, was arrested Tuesday night in a men's restroom at the swimming pool of an apartment complex in the suburb of Hialeah. He was charged with the first-degree murder of Lugene Brown.
Hembree also was charged with using a firearm while committing a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was previously convicted of armed robbery.
Brown, 38, a black man, was shot in the chest as he stood near a convenience store in Miami's Little River section, northwest of the Liberty City area where rioting was centered.
The shooting occurred on May 18, 1980, nearly 24 hours after the start of the rioting.
Brown and his family drove up to the convenience store moments before the shooting to find it had been boarded up. Brown's widow, Rosie, said a blue pickup truck with at least two white men swerved around the corner and someone in it opened fire with a shotgun, killing her husband.
Nine blacks have been arrested in connection with riot-related deaths and four were convicted. Two were acquitted and charges against two others were dismissed. A third first-degree murder trial is pending against the ninth, Nathaniel Lane, 19, whose first two trials in the beating death of Benny Higdon, 21, ended in jury deadlocks.
The lack of arrests of whites for the slayings of blacks during the rioting has been a frequent topic for speakers at protest rallies of black activist organizations in the Miami area.
A 14-year-old black youth also is believed to have been slain during the rioting by shots fired by whites from a blue pickup truck. Police have not yet tied that incident in with the killing of Brown.
