None Indicted in MOVE Bombing but Jury Calls Act ‘Reprehensible’
A grand jury declared Tuesday that Mayor W. Wilson Goode and his top aides displayed incompetence and “morally reprehensible behavior” in the 1985 MOVE bombing that killed 11 people and destroyed 61 homes, but it said they did nothing to warrant criminal indictments.
The panel described as “this city’s greatest tragedy” the failed eviction effort that ended in a fiery siege with the police bombing of a barricaded west Philadelphia row house occupied by members of the radical group MOVE.
Dist. Atty. Ronald Castille said the special grand jury voted 16 to 4 against filing charges.
“We are a stronger government, a stronger city,” Goode said after the report was released, noting that the event was the most fully investigated in city history. “I am committed to make sure that such tragic events never occur again.”
Would Not Discuss Details
Goode, who was judged “grossly negligent” by a special commission he formed shortly after the siege ended, declined to discuss details of the jury report.
The jury said it considered but discarded charges of conspiracy, murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, arson, causing or risking a catastrophe, failure to prevent a catastrophe, criminal mischief and perjury.
A federal grand jury is investigating whether the civil rights of the 11 victims, five of them children, were violated.
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