According to the man, the bodies of the two kids who died when police bombed the Philadelphia home that served as a Black radical group’s headquarters in 1985 have been given back to their brother.
According to Lionell Dotson, who spoke to media outside the Philadelphia medical examiner’s office, the bodies of Katricia and Zanetta Dotson would be cremated and transported to North Carolina to be interred.
Dotson, who was 8 years old when his sisters passed away, told WCAU-TV, “For the city to offer me this is a historic occasion.” Zanetta was 12 and Katricia was 14. “They are the focus, not I am. I can provide them with a last resting place that is permanent.”
Out of respect for the families, the city stated officials were visiting with surviving relatives.
Members of MOVE, led by founder John Africa, lived a lifestyle devoid of contemporary amenities, promoted animal equality, and disregarded governmental control. Their last name became Africa.
Police used a helicopter to drop a bomb on the residence on May 13, 1985, in an effort to drive out the group after they got into a fight with neighbors and the police. More than 60 row houses were destroyed by the ensuing fire, which claimed the lives of five children and six adults inside.
The decision to bomb an occupied row house was deemed “unconscionable” in a 1986 commission report. In a 1996 case, MOVE survivors were given a $1.5 million judgment.
In May of last year, the city’s health commissioner resigned after it was revealed that some of the bombing’s remains had been cremated in 2017. The remains hadn’t been incinerated, the city later claimed, and they had been discovered at the medical examiner’s office.
According to CBS Philadelphia, a long-awaited report on the bombing’s injustice was published last month.
However, the 257-page report was unable to address the important issues that sparked the investigation last year: Prior to being discovered in 2017, who placed the box of remains in a storage area at the medical examiner’s office? Also unclear, why did the employee that was instructed to cremate the remains four years ago under city health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley defy the order to do so?
“I’ve been very sincerely sorry that it happened,” Mayor Jim Kenney said. “Again, a lot of the mishandling happened back in the ’80s when the tragedy occurred. We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”