"Shoot Him! Shoot Him!"

In downtown Dallas, Police Officer John Chase, 25, stopped a car and ticketed the driver for not having a license. Onlooker Carl Williams, 34, a homeless black man with mental problems, objected to the white officer's action. The two argued, then scuffled. Williams grabbed the officer's revolver. As the policeman pleaded for his life, voices from the gathering crowd yelled, "Shoot him! Shoot him!" Williams shot Chase in the face and strolled away, then returned and fired twice more at the dying officer. Soon after, two off-duty policemen fatally wounded Williams.

That was the original police version of the tragedy on Jan. 23 that heightened tensions between the city's police force, which is 81% white, and black residents. Yet police soon softened some of the sensational details. Only two witnesses out of 45 mentioned the alleged shouts; both said one or two black youths across the street had done the yelling. Police are not positive that Williams even heard them.

Chase's murder followed months of controversy in which black leaders have sharply criticized the police for using their guns too readily. In 1986 Dallas ranked first among the nation's eleven largest cities in the per capita incidence of police shootings (30, with ten deaths). Such controversial killings, including the shooting of an elderly black woman on her front porch, prompted congressional hearings last year.

Racial roles were reversed in the murder of Officer Chase. Police Chief Billy Prince charged that "constant bashing" of his officers had contributed to Chase's death. Many blacks joined whites in showing their sympathy with the police by tying black ribbons to car antennas and driving with their lights on. Some 3,000 people attended a memorial service in Dallas, including officers from 117 cities.