Recordpub.com - Screams, shots on tape Canfora: Guard ordered to fire at KSU

By Dave O"Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

Moments before the sounds of 13 seconds of gunfire and screaming take over an audio recording of the May 4, 0 shootings at Kent State University, "a voice of authority" can be heard saying "Right here. Get set. Point. Fire," according to Alan Canfora.

Canfora, one of 13 Kent State University students shot by members of the Ohio National Guard that day, made the claim Tuesday. Four students were killed by guardsmen, who were in Kent to quell unrest following several days of protest over the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

"For those of us who saw the shooting, we witnessed a historic crime, a massacre," said Canfora, 58. He was shot in the right wrist May 4, 0 as he took cover behind a tree when guardsmen began to fire. He is the director of the nonprofit Kent May 4 Center.

On Tuesday he held aloft a compact disc containing the recording in question, which he said he found in January in a Yale University collection while researching a forthcoming memoir.

The recording, Canfora said, was made May 4, 0 by student Terry Strubbe from his Johnson Hall dormitory window using a reel-to-reel audio recorder. He played the key moments in question for group of media representatives and other interested parties in the Kent Student Center Kiva, on a digital compact disc made from a 0s-era cassette tape.

Strubbe has the original reel-to-reel tape and keeps it in a safe deposit box but provided it to the FBI during their investigation of the incident before it was returned to him, Canfora said. The Yale University cassette is a copy of Strubbe"s original, obtained by Canfora for $10 from Yale"s collection.

Canfora said previous investigations in the 0s "rushed to judgment" after the shootings by finding "no verbal command to fire," saying five of the guardsmen later claimed to have heard a verbal command to fire. No one was ever found criminally responsible for the shootings.

Describing the alleged evidence, Canfora then played several seconds of the audiotape several times for the audience, which remained quiet to hear the alleged command to fire. The words "get set" and "point" were audible on the tape, immediately after which any further commands are drowned out by gunfire and screams.

Canfora admitted the tape requires "definitive analysis" by independent sound technicians because it is a 37-year-old copy of a copy. He said he has provided it to state and U.S. representatives and hopes Strubbe will provide his original recording for a new and more in-depth investigation using new techniques that will lead to "truth and justice."

Neither Canfora nor fellow wounded student Joseph Lewis, who also was present Tuesday, want anyone prosecuted should a criminal conspiracy be uncovered. They both said they simply want to get to the truth 37 years after the incident.

"We do not seek revenge, retribution or punishment," Canfora said. "And we hope the government will agree with us. In Kent, Ohio we need truth, we need healing, and healing only comes from truth ... the shooters have children too."

Lewis, now 55 and of Oregon, said he did not hear the order to fire on May 4, 0 but that he did hear it on the uncovered recording. He said he is "looking forward to an expert analysis" of the recording because he wants "the truth known for the benefit of the mothers of the victims."

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2.	Posted by sammy1046 May 2, 2007
	Mr Canfora .. let's talk about that fateful weekend when the "poor students" set bonfires in the middle of N Water St .. pounding on cars .. rocking them back and forth as innocent townspeople traveled down the street. Let's talk about the "poor students" who broke downtown business windows with bricks and rocks as they were forced back to campus. Let's talk about the "poor students" who set fire to the ROTC building Saturday night .. then pelted the unarmed firemen with bottles and rocks as they tried to do their job of putting out fires. Let's talk about the "poor students" who took machetes to the fire hoses. Let's talk about the "poor students" who had a sit in on Sunday in the middle of Main Street. Let's talk about the "poor students" whose lovely co-eds lifted their skirts to guardsmen and offered there wares if the guard would put down their weapons. Let's talk about the "poor students" who were told NOT to gather in groups of more than 3 .. but did so anyway. Let's talk about the "poor students" who claimed it was their campus and for the guard to go home (it is a STATE university and the campus belongs to the STATE ~ you paid for the privelege of going there and USING their facilities). Let's talk about the "poor students" who were the same age as the "big bad guard". Mr. Shafer is only 2 years older than you Mr. Canfora. Let's talk about that fateful last day when the "poor students" assembled in mass when they were told NOT to. Yes, Mr. Canfora, it is a tragedy. Yes, Mr. Canfora, students died. Innocence died that day too. And the "big bad guard" (young men themselves ~ just like the "poor students") also lost their innocence. Let's rehash all this tragedy in the hopes that you make lots of money with your book, Mr. Canfora. I certainly hope that you taught your children about life, and consequences for actions. If you did, Mr. Canfora, then maybe they will never be the "poor students" like you and others.

1.	Posted by mrm4814 May 2, 2007
	Be careful when you ask for the truth, Mr. Canfora, you may not like what you find. I believe, and several other military officers I have questioned all agree, that the phrase, "Get set, point, fire" is no where NEAR what military officers or commanders use during battle. The US Military trains soldiers, and officers and commanders, by drilling and drilling and drilling certain behaviors into them, so that they become second nature during a combat situation. No officer would have have used that phrase to order his troops to engage in a firefight. There has been alot of discussion that another shooter fired on the guardsmen first. Maybe the voice on the tape would be that of the out-of-town radicals that came to campus and fired the first shot? Wouldn't that be something, if the tape revealed that the voice was one of Canfora's fellow protestors, right before he fired the "first shot" at the soldiers. (That would be the same "first shot" that many of the guardmen claim they heard, and then fired in self-defense.) Go look at the famous "bullet-hole" in the metal art work behind Taylor Hall. I have examined it many times. Anyone who has shot a gun can tell you the bullet entered from the side where the students were, and exited toward the side where the soldiers were standing. Stop trying to sell more books, and let it go. Your book may contain more than you want the people to know.