Freddy's Fashion Mart attack

On December 8, 1995, eight people, including the assailant, were killed when a gunman seized hostages at Freddy's Fashion Mart in Harlem, New York City and set the building on fire.[1][2]

Freddy's Fashion Mart attack
Location272 West 125th Street
Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
DateDecember 8, 1995
TargetFreddy's Fashion Mart
Attack type
Mass shooting, hostage taking, arson, murder–suicide
Deaths8 (including the perpetrator)
Injured4
PerpetratorsRoland J. Smith Jr.

Background

In 1995 a black Pentecostal Church, the United House of Prayer, which owned a retail property on 125th Street, asked Fred Harari, a Jewish tenant who operated Freddie's Fashion Mart, to evict his longtime subtenant, a black-owned record store called The Record Shack. African-American activist Al Sharpton led a protest in Harlem against the planned eviction of The Record Shack.[3][4][5] Sharpton incited the protesters to violence: "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business."[6]

Attack

On December 8, 1995, Roland J. Smith Jr., one of the protesters, entered Harari's store with a gun and flammable liquid, shot several customers and set the store on fire. The gunman fatally shot himself, and seven store employees died of smoke inhalation.[7][8] Fire Department officials discovered that the store's sprinkler had been shut down, in violation of the local fire code.[9]

Aftermath

Sharpton subsequently stated that the perpetrator was an open critic of himself and his nonviolent tactics. In 2002, Sharpton expressed regret for making the racial remark "white interloper" but denied responsibility for inflaming or provoking the violence.[10][11]

References
  1. "8 Die as Gunman Sets Afire N.Y. Store Tied to Dispute". Los Angeles Times. December 9, 1995.
  2. "Rev. Al's Caught on Protest Tape Called Mart Owner a 'White Interloper'". New York Daily News. December 13, 1995.
  3. Sexton, Joe (December 9, 1995). "Bad Luck and Horror for Seven in a Shop". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
  4. Pyle, Richard (December 12, 1995). "New Yorker Reflect on a Massacre in Harlem". Albany Times Union/Associated Press. p. B2.
  5. Barry, Dan (December 9, 1995). "Death on 128th street: The dispute; Plans to Evict Record-Shop Owner Roiled Residents". The New York Times. p. 31. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
  6. Lowry, Rich (December 3, 2003). "Sharpton's Victory". National Review. Archived from the original on April 16, 2007. Retrieved April 16, 2007.
  7. Kifner, John (December 9, 1995). "Eight killed in Harlem arson, Gunman among dead". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 16, 2007.
  8. Sexton, John (December 18, 1995). "A Life of Resistance: A Special Report;Gunman's Ardent Credo: Black Self-Sufficiency". The New York Times. Retrieved April 16, 2007. Smith was found with a card identifying himself as Aboudima Moulika and he had also used the name Abugunde Mulocko.
  9. Inquiry Traces Sprinkler System Failure in Fatal Harlem Fire. The New York Times. December 15, 1995.
  10. Alexandra Marks (December 3, 2003). "The Rev. Al Sharpton's latest crusade". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
  11. "Al Sharpton for president?". The Phoenix.com. July 3, 2002. Archived from the original on October 10, 2015. Retrieved April 6, 2007.
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