Fred Temple, an 18-year-old African American male, tragically lost his life on July 26, 1967, inside the Algiers Motel during the tumultuous 1967 Detroit riot. On that day, a contingent of Detroit police officers, Michigan State Police, and National Guardsmen stormed the motel in search of a sniper. Inside, they encountered a group of seven young Black men and two white women.
The situation quickly devolved into a scene of brutality and terror as the officers, seeking information about a supposed sniper, subjected the occupants to violent interrogations.
During the raid, Fred Temple and two other unarmed teenagers, Aubrey Pollard, 19, and Carl Cooper, 17, were shot and killed by police. Temple and Pollard were found dead in a room together. An autopsy later revealed that all three young men had been shot at close range while in non-aggressive postures. Despite the circumstances of the killings, the officers involved initially filed false reports about what had transpired at the Algiers Motel.
Three white Detroit police officers, Ronald August, Robert Paille, and David Senak, were implicated in the deaths. In the subsequent investigation, Officer Robert Paille was charged with the murder of Fred Temple, and Officer Ronald August was charged in the death of Aubrey Pollard. However, the legal proceedings that followed did not result in any convictions for the officers. A judge dismissed the murder charge against Paille, ruling that his confession was inadmissible. August was acquitted in Pollard's death after claiming self-defense. No one was ever charged in connection with Carl Cooper's death. The U.S. Department of Justice later charged the three officers and a security guard with conspiring to violate the civil rights of the individuals at the motel, but an all-white jury acquitted them. The families of Fred Temple and Aubrey Pollard later filed a civil suit against the city of Detroit and settled in 1976.
