Gary DeLaune



Black Friday: Bullets instead of flowers


Time passes faster than a lightning flash. It doesn’t seem like it has been 31 years since a mentally disturbed man became a crazed gunman as he used an old RV as his arsenal and armed with 15 weapons and 3,000 rounds of ammunition, stepped to the doorway, placed his hand on the trigger of an automatic weapon and began spraying the crowd with projectiles of tragedy.

It was called “Black Friday,” and before the fusillade of bullets ended, two persons died and 52 others were wounded. However, the scene could have been a much larger killing field had not the sniper’s weapon jammed.

Sixty-four-year old Ira Attebury, a native of the Midwest who carried a grudge against the San Antonio Police Department, initially targeted the six officers who were assigned to the intersection of Broadway and Grayson. His aim was true enough to bring down the veteran lawmen. Fortunately, their wounds were serious and not fatal, but they carried the wounds with them for years and many were forced to retire because of them. Miraculously, they lived through the barrage.

As Attebury continued his rampage, one of his next volleys struck 26-year old Ida Long and 47-year old Mrs. Amelia Castillo, the mother of 13 children. The two women died instantly. Two of Mrs. Castillo’s children were wounded, but not critically.

The bloodbath became a scene of sheer pandemonium as hundreds of festive onlookers, waiting to see the historic Battle of Flowers parade, instead, were trapped in a bloody web of evil.

It brought to mind the infamous escapade at the University of Texas Tower some 13 years earlier when ex-Marine Charles Whitman unleashed his sniper savagery killing 15 victims on the UT campus.

The police radio came alive that Friday afternoon when the words, “officers down …. officers down at Broadway and Grayson” squawked across the air waves. All news operations monitor the police radios and when the alert was heard at KENS-TV, Ronnie Smith and I raced for the Channel 5 live-truck and Ronnie sped toward the scene, just a few blocks from the station which was located at Fourth and Avenue E.

Several news photographers were already in place at various parade route sites, so they were alerted when the police dispatcher relayed the shooting information. Cameraman Joe Flores and news reporter Margo Spitz were near the intersection and Flores began videoing immediately.

Smitty and I turned the corner on Grayson and headed toward Broadway … you could hear the sounds of gunfire and windshields on autos in the lot of San Antonio Motor Imports being blown out. As we approached the Burggraf Tire Company, we saw people running from the intersection like ants fleeing insect spray. Scattered chairs and debris were remnants of the gunman’s wrath. We pulled our live truck within 30 yards of the RV, unaware of the exact origin of the gunfire. All the police officers were down so no one was there to warn us off …. until someone said “Get back, get back. He’s in the RV”.

At that point, Smitty slammed the truck in reverse and backed to Grayson and Alamo. I jumped from the vehicle and crawled through a hole in a fence to be met by flying glass shards as Attebury’s bullets slammed into the car windows.

I sprinted back to the live truck, told Smitty to roll out the video cable and we stretched it almost to the Broadway/Grayson location and began our live reports as chaos continued.

Arriving police officers returned fire….a SWAT team member began firing tear gas canisters into the RV and volunteers, officers and Air Force personnel began pushing an Air Force bus into the intersection to provide cover for escaping spectators.

For more than two hours we continued our reports and I would seek a parade watcher or shooting witness for a live interview. Margo Spitz and Joe Flores joined up with Smitty and I to provide more footage and interviews.

While the horrible event was taking place, my wife Jo, 13-year-old daughter Andrea and 8-year old son Shannon were watching the parade at home. Suddenly, when Andrea saw my first television report, she began screaming to her Mom, “Daddy’s going to get shot! Daddy’s going to get shot!”

Jo was so shaken, she phoned Ray Dudley, assignments editor at KENS-TV and said to him: “Tell him to get the hell out of there.”

Looking back, it was rather dangerous as I was squatting in the middle of the street giving my reports. I’ll never forget a dazed young woman, blood flowing from a head wound, leaning against the bumper of a patrol car clutching a small boy to her bosom. That memorable moment was captured by an Express-News photographer and became the cover picture for Life Magazine.

Express-News file photo

T.J. Lapping is comforted by his aunt, Dianne Wick, while his mother, who was shot in the neck by Ira Attebury is treated nearby on April 27, 1979.

The young woman was Diane Wick, and the boy was her nephew, Tommy Lapping. She told me she heard shots, saw someone fall, turned to her sister and started to speak when her sibling was hit in the throat by an Attebury bullet, and then she too was wounded.

As a man swiftly crossed the street, I stopped him, asked him to kneel down with me and tell me what he had witnessed. Neal Merchant and his family were seated directly across the street from the RV’s door and he related he heard a shot, saw a police officer fall, then witnessed the opening of the RV’s door and smoke coming from a gun. Merchant continued that at least two little kids were hit.

He was angry at the gunman. “I was in Vietnam, and if I had a chance I’d go in there and kill the SOB.”

It could have been even worse and the figures could have been reversed. Rather than two dead and 52 wounded, the casualties might have been 52 dead and two wounded.

The wounded officers were identified as Lt. Gary Nagy, the first hit, He crawled to his nearby squad car. The other victims were Inspector Elroy Crenwelge, Lt. Robert Maldonado, Sgt. Ben Donahoe and Sgt. Tom Barker. They either crawled from the immediate vicinity or were aided by bystanders. The sixth cop wounded was Sgt. L.R. Grassmuck, who was hit in the leg and foot. Patrolman John Scott was injured when his motorcycle overturned as he sped toward the scene.

Chief of Police Emil Peters said Attebury apparently committed suicide after the tragic onslaught and the weapon he was using at the time malfunctioned. But he was also hit by a police officer’s shotgun blast as the patrolman crawled into the RV and saw the killer prone on the floor. The officer was identified as SWAT team member Sgt. Sidney Marsh. There was no doubt after both barrels were emptied that the parade butcher was dead.

As many as 100 police officers swarmed to the scene, cordoned off the area and cleared the streets. The entire episode was over and for the first time in its storied history, the Battle of Flowers parade was canceled. Officers using bullhorns told thousands who were downtown to go home — the parade was over.

Attebury had begun his killing spree immediately after the high school color guard had passed through the intersection…He might well have fired at the kids but apparently decided to direct his fury at the men in police uniforms.

It was a terrible day on that warm spring afternoon but my blood runs cold when I remember those horrifying moments when the man, known as a “loner” and paranoid about the police, claiming they were always watching him, became an instrument of the devil.

It was indeed Black Friday. And now, every year at Battle of Flowers time, I get goosebumps thinking about the battlefield-like conditions that occurred in April of 1979.

Let’s hope and pray it never happens again, in San Antonio or in any other city.

Categories: Uncategorized
Gary DeLaune

4 Responses

  1. [...] Then the name Ira Atteberry popped back into my consciousness. It can and has happend here. Black Friday: Bullets instead of flowers | Gary DeLaune | a blog So for those who died and were injured in Boston, and those San Antonians who also lost their [...]

  2. Jimmy Davison says:

    This is a story. Some of it is hearsay, but this is what I remember.

    My son and I rode the park and ride downtown. As we walked across the river somebody shouted and we looked into the water and saw a big snake swimming.

    We walked on down to our church’s seats. The youth choir had sold tickets. My friend Judy and her two daughters met us there.

    It seems to me that it was a cool day, in the shade. I looked behind me and saw a man about 40 who was walking with another man who was slightly older. “I heard that there was a sniper up at the head of the parade that just shot four people. ” The other man responded that he didn’t believe it.

    I knew immediately that I’d better check that out. Quickly. I asked a man who was sitting on the bed of his truck if he had a radio. He didn’t.

    As I turned around I saw a San Antonio Policeman walking in front of our seats. Did they wear tan uniforms in those days? I asked him if there was going to be a parade. He looked left and right and then said, “I don’t know.”

    I told Judy to grab the kids we were leaving…We walked toward the steps that led to the Riverwalk. As we walked away some of the teens told us that they’d met the SAPD swat team and that they were very capable. I told the kids that I didn’t want to see it.

    After a long lunch at Casa Rio, we climbed the steps to see hundreds of people still sitting their chairs. Why?

    Many years later I met a woman who’d been in Judson High School Band. They were at the corner of Grayson when they heard gun fire. She said that her teacher (band director) had been in WW II and was good at keeping his wits about him in a crisis. He simply gave the order, “ABOUT! FACE! Forward, march.” And they left safely.

    And then about 1999 i talked to a man who was still on active duty with SAPD. He told me that at that time there was a swat team, but they weren’t even on call. They had to be rounded up. He added that he’d been placed on the roof of a building with a rifle…

    We were a LONG time getting a bus. When I got home the phone was ringing and ringing. Several of our friends were concerned about us. I guess it had been on the news all over the networks.

  3. Brian Geary says:

    I was there that day also as a band member for a marching band from California. I still remember everything that happened that day and the chaos that occurred. I have never researched this out until today. I was young and really was scared. I was showing this to my family and they are amazed. I am sorry for the people who suffered from this tragic event. Still carries a lot of weight in my mind. I am glad that i found this.

  4. johnny marks says:

    I was working at WOAI that day, when my old friend and newsman for WOAI, Bud Little, asked me if I wanted to cover a story with him. Having worked with Bud in Corpus Christi, I said “you bet!” Off we went to one of the most memorable news stories I’d ever been involved with.

    We arrived at the scene, got out, went past Police barriers leading up the Mcallister and crouched behind an unmarked car with a Texas Ranger. Gunfire was still loud and unceasing when the Ranger got a call to move to a different location. He picked up a scoped sniper rifle, suggested we find new cover ASAP and was off.

    Bud and I got split up in the pandemonium only a mad man determined to kill as many as possible could cause. It’s a day I’ll never forget, but always remember this time of year.

    Johnny Marks