Death Toll in bombing Rises to 11 : Cult’s Warning of Dousing House With Gasoline Told

The number of bodies recovered from the charred ruins of a radical group’s stronghold rose Wednesday to 11--four of them children--amid reports that a day before police bombed the fortified house, members of the cult inside had warned that they had doused it with gasoline.

As the search for the dead went though its second day, reporters questioning Mayor W. Wilson Goode at a news conference said they had heard members of the MOVE cult use bullhorns to give the warning on Sunday.

The armed confrontation at the house began Monday morning, and that evening police trying to end the standoff used a helicopter to drop a bomb on the roof.

250 Left Homeless

A fire that followed the bombing spread to 60 other homes, destroying 52, damaging eight, and leaving about 250 persons homeless. It also disrupted the lives of more than 1,500 others in a three-block area that was evacuated for the siege and shoot-out, which ended only when MOVE’s residence was reduced to ruins.

Police and firemen found the bodies of three adults and two children in the rubble of the house Wednesday. Four adults and two children had been found Tuesday. None of the dead have been identified, and the sex of only one male has been established.

At his news conference, the mayor was sharply questioned by reporters who said they had heard the MOVE warnings that cult members had poured gasoline on the structure.

Goode did not directly address the question of whether police had heard the warnings.

He said the decision to use the explosive device was made only after the siege of the residence had begun, and stressed that the bomb would not have been used had officials known in advance it would cause damage far beyond destroying a fortified bunker on the roof.

Goode said that use of an explosive device “was an alternative that was brought up May 13. . . . All the experts we’ve talked to said the device would not cause a fire,” the mayor told the news conference in Philadelphia’s City Hall.

Quicker Than Expected

“For some reason, the fire got out of control much quicker than anyone anticipated. There was something in that house that made that fire go up so quickly.”

He also proclaimed Sunday a day of prayer for the dead and their families.

Police had staked out the row house for days before the siege began Sunday night and while members of MOVE were reportedly shouting their dire warnings through the bullhorns.

MOVE members also used bullhorns to harangue their neighbors, who complained of assaults, robberies and a “stench” from the house, where members embraced an anti-technological philosophy that discouraged conventions such as bathing and made pets of rats and other animals commonly classed as vermin.

Warrants were issued last week accusing four of the adults believed to be living there of criminal conspiracy, possession of explosives, disorderly conduct, rioting and harassment.

Controversy over the tactic of having a police department’s bomb squad build an explosive device and drop it from a helicopter onto a building containing women and children continued to build Wednesday in the city.

Editorials Castigate Police

Local newspaper editorials castigated the police and Goode’s administration for the tactic. A number of state legislators criticized the bombing. Sen. Vincent Fumo, a Philadelphia Democrat, said: “Dropping the bomb was the first mistake and it was followed by the catastrophe of letting it burn.”

In describing the events of the attack at his news conference, Goode made it clear that the decision to use the bomb was made only after bullets, tear gas and water cannons had failed to oust the occupants. An alternative plan to have a crane lift the rooftop bunker away was abandoned in the heat of battle for fear that the derrick’s operator would be harmed.

A plan to use an armored personnel carrier also was scrapped because police commanders decided the street in front of the house was too narrow.

Police Commissioner Gregore J. Sambor suggested Wednesday that MOVE might have spread flammable materials around its compound. He said there was a “very good possibility” that MOVE itself had started the fire.

‘Fight to the Death’

“Any intention to fight to the death is, in my estimation, suicide,” he said.

Goode also said that the fire “may have been set from the inside as well.”

The mayor said the searchers had found a shotgun, a rifle and some parts of a machine gun in addition to a tripod as they continued to sift through the wreckage.

Goode pledged to appoint within a week a blue-ribbon panel to investigate all aspects of the siege. But he stressed that he supported his commissioners and his field commanders.

Decisions Delegated

“I believe a mayor has to delegate to his subordinates those kinds of operational decisions that require expertise,” he said.

“I stand fullsquare behind all the people in the field who made decisions,” he said.

The mayor indicated that the attack against MOVE, a tiny simplistic cult that drew national attention through the siege and a similar confrontation here in 1978 that left a policeman killed, was being planned for weeks.

“We did think a great deal about having the children out (of the home),” he said.

‘Intent to Protect Life’

“The intent was to devise a plan to protect life,” Goode said.

“What happened was an accident. There was no plan that called for the destruction of the house by fire or a bomb. . . . The only thing that went wrong with the plan was the fire. . . . I am fully and totally responsible.”

Municipal officials said in an interview that they plan no immediate action against other homes in Philadelphia occupied by MOVE.

Despite tight surveillance by detectives on at least two remaining homes occupied by MOVE, current plans are for watchful waiting, pending neighborhood complaints or any signs that the group is regaining strength, stockpiling arms or constructing fortifications.

“As long as there are no males in those houses, we’ll leave them alone,” said a highly placed official who asked not to be identified. He explained that as far as police know, there are no men in the other MOVE homes.

Watched by TV Crews

Police and firemen, watched by a dozen television camera crews and scores of curious neighbors--some of whom took pictures--carried on with the excavation of what was MOVE’s principal residence on Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. They suspended operations at nightfall.

The task of searching for more bodies was hampered by the debris. A crane in the middle of the street lifted sections of row house rubble into a dump truck. But the excavation was being done mainly by hand.

Before his news conference, Goode appeared with his police and fire commissioners at a previously scheduled ceremony honoring members of the service who died in the line of duty. No policemen or firemen were killed in the assault on the Osage Avenue residence despite heavy gunfire from MOVE members within.

‘Lives on the Line’

Standing on a podium draped with red, white and blue bunting in a local park, the mayor spoke emotionally of the raid. “The last two days have been difficult. I saw men and women go out on Osage Avenue and put their lives on the line,” Goode said. “I wanted to come to this ceremony without having any names added (to the list of dead).”

In another part of the city, MOVE’s remaining followers reacted angrily to the destruction of their structure.

A woman leaving a MOVE house on 56th Street called MOVE a “defensive” group, not an offensive one. “MOVE don’t bother nobody,” said the woman, who wore jeans, a tan jacket and her hair in dreadlocks.

Denies MOVE Is Suicidal

“They’re trying to make us seem suicidal; MOVE is not suicidal,” said the woman, who refused to give her name but gave a reporter a MOVE telephone number.

Answering the telephone at the number, a woman identifying herself as LaVerne Africa said she has a son and a daughter who both were arrested during a 1978 confrontation between MOVE and police. She said she was concerned they might now be killed inside prison as part of “a pattern” of official violence against the group.

“It must not be allowed to happen,” she said, adding that because of the new confrontations, she has resumed using the surname Africa and will speak out publicly against Goode and the police.

The two MOVE houses, being watched by detectives in unmarked cars, had their windows and doorways covered with strips of wood. Women and children entered and left.

Residents Voice Concern

Several residents in the two neighborhoods seemed resigned to MOVE’s presence, but voiced concern about police conducting the surveillances.

Kim Scott, who lives across the street from a MOVE house, said the two-week-long surveillance “makes you kind of paranoid. Every time you come out, you see a cop.”

At the other MOVE house, a woman stood outside, railing against Goode and racism as two women residents of the house stood inside a fence, nodding in agreement and occasionally saying: “That’s right.”