Police Officer Glenn E. Smith

Glenn E. Smith

Police Officer Glenn Smith was shot and killed by a sniper at a house used by the Black Panther Party located at 3376 Sixteenth Street.

Officer Smith, in plainclothes, was responding to a call for help from two fellow officers who had tried to ticket two young supporters of the Black Panther Party for illegally distributing literature. When he arrived at the scene, a rifle barrel poked out of the bay window of the home and fired once, killing Officer Smith.

After a standoff, all 16 occupants of the home surrendered and were eventually all found not guilty.

Officer Smith had been a Detroit Police Officer for two years. Survivors include his wife, parents, and siblings.

The Black Panther Party was a black nationalist and Marxist revolutionary political and militant organization active in the United States between 1966 and 1982. 

Members and former members of the group were responsible for the murders of over 20 law enforcement officers and the wounding of dozens more across the nation.

Please click here to visit all the law enforcement officers who have died as a result of the Black Panther Party's violent activism.