Bobby Hutton

People

Bobby Hutton

Outcome

unknown

On April 6, 1968, just two days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 17-year-old Bobby Hutton became the first member of the Black Panther Party to be killed by police. Hutton, known as "Lil' Bobby," was the first recruit and treasurer of the Black Panthers, joining the organization at age 16 after meeting founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale at an Oakland anti-poverty center in 1966. On the night of his death, Hutton was part of a group of Panthers led by Eldridge Cleaver that engaged in a shootout with Oakland police officers near Union and 28th Streets. The confrontation lasted approximately 90 minutes. During the gun battle, two police officers were wounded. Hutton and Cleaver eventually sought refuge in the basement of a house, but when a tear gas canister set fire to the building, they were forced to surrender. According to Cleaver and other witnesses, Hutton stripped down to demonstrate he was unarmed before exiting the building with his hands raised in the air. Despite this, Oakland police shot him more than twelve times, killing him instantly. Police claimed Hutton had tried to flee and ignored commands to stop, but one Oakland police officer who witnessed the shooting later told Cleaver that "what they did was first-degree murder." Cleaver, who was wounded in the leg, was arrested and charged with three counts of attempted murder. He later jumped his $50,000 bail and fled to Cuba, then Algeria, spending seven years in exile before returning to the United States in 1975. Hutton's funeral on April 12, 1968 at Ephesian Church of God in Berkeley drew approximately 1,500 mourners. A rally afterward at the Alameda County Courthouse attracted over 2,000 people and featured a eulogy by actor Marlon Brando, who told the crowd that white America needed to understand that racism was turning Black America into a "ticking time bomb." Hutton's death transformed the Black Panther Party from a local Oakland organization into a national movement with chapters across the country. In 1998, the City of Oakland officially renamed DeFremery Park in West Oakland as "Lil' Bobby Hutton Memorial Park," and annual memorial celebrations have been held there every April since 1998.