GREENSBORO, N.C. — Three ministers accused a Greensboro police officer Tuesday of ordering officers to destroy about 50 boxes of police files related to the fatal shooting of five people at an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in 1979.
The Revs. Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen and Nelson Johnson said an active-duty officer told them he and at least three other officers were told to destroy the records in 2004 or 2005, shortly after a panel convened to research the shootings requested police files related to them.
The News & Record of Greensboro reported that the order came from Sgt. Craig McMinn in the department’s Special Intelligence Unit. The ministers didn’t identify the officer who provided the information.
Telephone messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press for McMinn and Chief of Police Timothy Bellamy weren’t immediately returned.
