Thomas Edward Broadus
Thomas Edward Broadus was a 26-year-old private in the 1322nd Service Command Unit of the U.S. Army. A Georgia native, he and his wife, Estelle, had five children and they lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Case summary
Incident
On the night of January 31, 1942, nine months after his induction, U.S. Army Private Thomas Broadus traveled from Fort Meade, Maryland, to nearby Baltimore to enjoy an evening out. Broadus met up with fellow servicemen, also in uniform – Corporal Thomas Fouse, privates Charles Cooper and Alvin Wright – and two civilian women, Gwendolyn Alston and Rosearle Gaither, at the “Spot,” a bar near Pennsylvania Avenue. The men who were with Broadus that night told military investigators that Broadus had been drinking that evening but was not “quarrelsome.”
Later that night, around 1 a.m. on February 1, Broadus, along with his companions, attempted to enter an unlicensed vehicle (a “jitney” or private car often chauffeured by a Black driver) near Pennsylvania Avenue and Pitcher Street. Baltimore Police Officer Edward R. Bender witnessed the group hail the jitney and directed them to take a licensed cab.
According to Fouse, Broadus told Bender that the licensed taxi drivers “acted like they didn’t want to ride colored people.” Nevertheless, the group did not get into the jitney and crossed the street. Broadus stayed behind to speak with Bender, although witnesses to the incident could not hear the exchange.
At some point, the two men began to fight and a crowd gathered. Witness accounts differ as to who started the fight: Some identified Bender as the instigator, saying he grabbed Broadus and struck him with his nightstick while Broadus’s hands were in his pockets. Others, including Bender, said Broadus took offense to Bender’s demand to seek a licensed taxi and grabbed the officer first.
As the fight continued, two military policemen (MPs) arrived. The MPs – privates Robert L. Willey and Elmer M. Pinckney – told military investigators that they were attacked by the bystanders when attempting to intervene and left to call for back-up. Witnesses claimed that the MPs were nearby but did not intervene in the fight.
The struggle continued for 15 to 20 minutes, as both men fell several times to the ground. According to military correspondence, Broadus “got possession of the policeman’s night stick,” struck Bender with it on the head and arms, and attempted to flee. Bender used his service revolver to fire at Broadus. Some accounts state Bender first fired a shot in the air and then a second shot at Broadus as he ran away, striking him in the back. Witnesses said a wounded Broadus attempted to hide under a car but Bender approached, shot him again, and then kicked Broadus.
Responding officers reported finding Bender’s nightstick under Broadus’s body. Broadus was taken to Provident Hospital where he was pronounced dead around 1:30 a.m. Bender was taken to Maryland General Hospital and treated for arm and head injuries.
Records indicate there were two gunshot wounds, both entering through Broadus’s back. A bullet was found lodged in his right breast. However, no cause of death was listed on the death certificate.
Aftermath
A day after Broadus’s death, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and four city, state, and federal agencies launched investigations. The Baltimore chapter of the NAACP took up the case at the behest of Broadus’s father. According to Baltimore Afro American newspaper reports, army officers from Fort Meade, the State’s Attorney, the state medical examiner, and the Baltimore Police Department each took up separate investigations into Broadus’s death. On February 11, the Union Brotherhood of Union Baptist Church sent a telegram to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, requesting that the War Department also investigate.
The Board of Officers convened at Fort Meade the day after the shooting to conduct an inquiry into Broadus’s death. The investigation included interviews of the servicemen who’d been with Broadus that evening – Cooper, Wright, and Fouse. The War Department ultimately determined that the case against Bender should be handled by civil authorities, as the incident did not occur on a military installation. A military report in late February concluded that the Broadus killing was being used “by certain colored societies … to give them greater control of certain phases of government in which they are, as a class, deeply interested.”
The Baltimore police commissioner suspended Bender, and charges were filed against him on February 12 for the shooting of Broadus. On February 25, a grand jury, who had heard some but not all eyewitness accounts, initially “presented” Bender with the charge of unlawful homicide and referred the case to criminal court. Bail was set at $2,500. However, a few days later, the grand jury, without disclosing its reasons, reversed its decision and dismissed the charges. Bender was reinstated to the force and transferred to another beat. Efforts to have the State’s Attorney reopen the case were unsuccessful. Bender remained with the Baltimore Police Department and eventually became a sergeant.
Community uproar and demand for accountability intensified. On April 24, 1942, after months of inaction, more than 2,000 protesters marched to the state capitol and filled the two chambers in a demand for action on police killings, including the dismissal of police Commissioner Robert F. Stanton and the hiring of Black police officers in Baltimore. Under Stanton’s tenure, police had killed nine Black citizens in Baltimore since 1938.
Several weeks later, Governor Herbert O’Conor established the Commission to Study Problems Affecting the Negro Population. The commission called for a grand jury to re-open the case and recommended the promotion of more Black officers in the Baltimore Police Department. In its March 23, 1943 report, the commission concluded that Bender “was in no danger when he fired the fatal shot, for the soldier was then in full flight; and even if we accept the officer’s account of the episode, the soldier’s only offense was an assault upon an officer and for this grade of offense the killing of a fugitive to prevent his escape was not justified in law.” The commission also questioned why the State’s Attorney could not explain why the grand jury changed their presentment and why he failed to bring the case to a different grand jury, and criticized the police commissioner for failing to sufficiently discipline Bender. This was Bender’s second fatal on-duty shooting.
At the federal level, the Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to pursue the case in 1943, citing a lapse of almost two years since the incident occurred and indicating that successful prosecution of the case would be doubtful. Bernard J. Flynn, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, agreed with the DOJ’s conclusion and, in December 1943, the file was closed.
Edward Bender died on November 6, 1964 after retiring from the Baltimore Police Department. Broadus is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania.
Media Gallery
Case summaries are compiled from information contained in different sources, including, but not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.
In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:
Sources
U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954 (1942)
World War II Draft Registration Card, 1940
1920 U.S. Federal Census
1930 U.S. Federal Census
1950 U.S. Federal Census
Maryland, 1936-1973. Governor’s Commission on Problems Affecting the Negro Population, 1943. (Box 20, Folder 11). 1943. University of Minnesota Libraries, Social Welfare History Archives
“Cop Kills Fort Meade Soldier, 26,” The Baltimore Afro-American, February 7, 1942
“2 Sets of Twins Survive Slain Ft. Meade Soldier,” The Baltimore Afro-American, February 14, 1942
“5 Agencies Probe Death of Soldier,” The Baltimore Afro-American, February 14, 1942
“Hearing February 19 for Officer Bender,” The Baltimore Afro-American, February 21, 1942
“Plea to F.D. Brings Probe of Killing,” The Baltimore Afro-American, February 28, 1942
“NAACP Body Asks O’Conor for Hearing in Soldier’s Death,” The Baltimore Afro-American, March 21, 1942
“2,000 Baltimore Citizens in Impressive March on Annapolis," The Baltimore Afro-American, May 2, 1942
“Commission Seeks Trial of Policeman in Death of Soldier,” The Baltimore Afro-American, October 3, 1942
“Hearing of Negroes in Shooting Continued,” The Baltimore Sun, March 5, 1942
“Jury Sets Aside Charge on Bender,” The Baltimore Sun, March 11, 1942
“Assault Charge to be Aired Today,” The Baltimore Sun, March 11, 1942
“Negroes Assail City Policemen,” The Baltimore Sun, April 25, 1942
“Grand Jury Sets Aside Bender Presentment,” The Evening Sun, March 4, 1942
“Bender Hearing Set Thursday,” The Evening Sun, February 16, 1942
“Held for Grand Jury in Fatal Shooting,” The Evening Sun, February 19, 1942
“2 Are Freed in Fatal Brawl,” The Evening Sun, March 11, 1942
“Negro Police In Blue Urged,” The Evening Sun, September 25, 1942
“Not ‘Just Another Committee’," The Evening Sun, September 25, 1942
“N.A.A.C.P. To Ask Firing of Ober,” The Evening Sun, January 8, 1951
“Born of Desperation,” The Pittsburgh Courier, May 2, 1942
“2,000 March to Protest Brutality,” The Chicago Defender, May 2, 1942
“Terrorism Against Colored Soldiers Stirs the Nation,” The New York Amsterdam Star-News, February 14, 1942
“Angry Citizens March on Capitol After Cop’s Murder of Soldier,” The People’s Voice, May 2, 1942