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Reflections February 2014

Aid for Age

Shooting Congress

By Tait Trussell

My father, who observed the incident from the press gallery, which looks down on the House chamber, was accidently wounded, after a fashion. He was struck in his cheek by a piece of the gallery ceiling that flew down from a stray shot by one of the Nationalists.

Talk about a family outing: my father, brother, and I took part in a rather exciting one on March 1, 1954.

That was when three Puerto Rican Nationalists fired shots into the House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress and spreading panic throughout the Capitol.

My father covered the drama that day as Congressional correspondent for the New York Times. My brother covered the exciting event for a string of New England papers for which he then worked. I was Washington correspondent for the St. Petersburg, Florida, Times at that point.

The overwrought Puerto Ricans fired their guns from the spectator’s gallery or balcony, shooting at random toward the members of the House.

Capitol police quickly took the Puerto Ricans into custody. The New York Times, the following day, reported that the Nationalist Party members sought “full independence” for the island, which has been under U.S. control as a possession, then as a commonwealth.

My father, who observed the incident from the press gallery, which looks down on the House chamber, was accidently wounded, after a fashion. He was struck in his cheek by a piece of the gallery ceiling that flew down from a stray shot by one of the Nationalists.

Shouting for the freedom of their homeland, Lolita Lebron screamed, “Viva Puerto Rico.” She held a large Lugar pistol in both hands waving it wildly. One shot must have hit the ceiling of the chamber causing a piece to fall and strike Dad on his cheek.

He later claimed, with his usual humor, that he was one of those wounded in the shooting.

My brother, Douglas, and I crossed paths in a Capitol hallway shortly after the members of Congress who had been wounded were carried from the Chamber.

Douglas asked, “Any of yours hit?” He meant, of course, were any Florida congressmen among those who were wounded.

“No,” I answered quickly. “Any of yours?

“No, unfortunately,” he responded. It would have made a better story for each of us if someone in the Congressional delegations we covered, had been among those shot.

Many of the members told reporters that “I was sitting right next to someone who was shot.” So many of them said that there had to be several members sitting on each other’s laps for it to be true.  

It was later reported that a Capitol policemen had asked any of the four Puerto Ricans when they came into the visitors’ gallery if they had any cameras. They supposedly replied in the negative. But the Capitol cop didn’t ask them if they carried guns.

Some 30 shots were fired in the barrage of bullets that rained on the House members who, at the time, were debating an immigration bill.

All of the wounded Representatives eventually returned to Congress after their wounds were healed. The Puerto Rican Nationalist extremists were imprisoned.

As I recall, there was considerable conversation at home that March 1954 evening about the day’s events and the intriguing fact that all three of us were covering the same news event.

 

Tait Trussell is an old guy and fourth-generation professional journalist who writes extensively about aging issues among a myriad of diverse topics.

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