FROM THE FINAL REPORT of Captain Edward X. Delaney, NYPD-EXD-1SEP1968.
“It was now, I would judge, approximately 4:45 A.M. We were no longer under fire from the fourth floor window. Suddenly we heard the sound of several gunshots from the vicinity of East Seventy-third Street and East End Avenue. I immediately dispatched officers Oliver J. Kronen (Shield 76398542) and Robert L. Breech (Shield 92356762) to investigate. Officer Kronen returned in a few moments to report that an officer had been slain, another wounded in the thigh. Both had been in car George Nineteen, blocking exit from Seventy-third Street at that corner.
“I thereupon contacted my command post via walkie-talkie. I instructed my driver, Officer McClaire, to send the standby ambulance around to the East End Avenue corner. He acknowledged. I also instructed him at this time to report the situation to Communications Center and request them to pass on the information to Inspector Abrahamson and Deputy Beatem. He acknowledged.
“I immediately led a squad of six armed men into the building at 535 East Seventy-third Street. We passed the body of the masked man who had been killed while trying to escape. Later investigation proved him to be Samuel ‘Skeets’ Johnson, a Negro. We then entered the lobby where we found a white man seated on the floor of the lobby, his back against the wall, his hands raised. He was taken into custody. Later investigation proved him to be Ernest Heinrich Mann.
“At that time my squad joined forces with the men from the Tactical Patrol Force coming down from the terrace and the men who had been stationed at the rear of the building. These men had taken an additional suspect, Thomas J. Haskins, into custody.
“We searched the building thoroughly and found the super asleep in his basement apartment. We also found some of the tenants and the doorman present in Apartment 4A. One of the tenants, Gerald Bingham, Sr., was wounded and apparently in shock. His right eye was bleeding badly. In addition to the people who had been held captive in this apartment, there was also a masked man lying on the floor, seriously wounded. I was told by eyewitnesses that he had been shot twice by another masked man.
“I thereupon instructed an officer to go outside and call for three more ambulances to facilitate the removal of the dead and wounded—officers, criminals, and innocent victims.
“Preliminary questioning of the victims revealed there had been another man (later identified as John ‘Duke’ Anderson) who had been present during the crime and had apparently escaped. I judged he was the man responsible for the killing of Officer Illingham and the wounding of Officer Similar of car George Nineteen at the corner of Seventy-third Street and East End Avenue. I thereupon left the apartment house and, using a walkie-talkie, dictated an alert to Officer McClaire for relay to Communications Center. I described the suspect as the witnesses had described him to me. Officer McClaire acknowledged, and I stayed on the radio until he could report that Communications Center—Lieutenant Fineally in command—had acknowledged and was alerting all precincts and sectors.
“When the ambulances arrived, I sent off the wounded immediately—and later the dead. It so happened that Gerald Bingham, Sr., the wounded tenant, and the wounded suspect (later identified as Vincent ‘Socks’ Parelli, of Detroit) shared the ambulance going to Mother of Mercy Hospital.
“I then returned to my command post at the corner of York Avenue and East Seventy-third Street. Via Communications Center, I alerted Homicide East, the Police Laboratory, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and the Public Relations Division. At this time—it was shortly after 5:00 A.M.—there had been no reports on the whereabouts of the escaped suspect, John Anderson.”