After several brouhahas and altercations between American colonist and British civil servants, Parliament made the decision to station British soldiers in Boston. For many this action was an unacceptable infringement on their English Bill of rights and on 5 March 1770, British soldiers opened fire and killed twelve Bostonians. While there were wildly different accounts of the situation, with one anonymous person stating that the shooting was deliberate, and Captain Preston – the commanding officer - stating the shooting was an accident, the result was the same. The Boston Massacre solidified American hatred of the British, and paved the way towards independence.