Believed It Was ‘Stun Device’ : Didn’t Understand Type of Bomb, Goode Explains

Mayor W. Wilson Goode said Thursday that he “did not understand” fully the type of explosive used against the radical cult MOVE, but he authorized its use because he feared MOVE’s angry neighbors would attack the group or that MOVE would “blow up the block.”

“If someone had come to me and said, ‘We’re going to take a helicopter and drop a bomb on a house,’ I would have said ‘no,’ ” the mayor said in an interview with The Times.

The mayor said he believed he was approving use of a “stun device,” not a bomb, at the row house occupied by the radical group. But after the Du Pont Tovex explosive, similar to dynamite, was dropped Monday night, a fire broke out that killed 11 persons in the house and spread to destroy 53 west-side row houses and damage eight others.

“As tragic as the outcome was,” Goode said, “I knew I had to make a decision to attack.” Otherwise, he said, a “slaughter” would have resulted.

Police had been involved in a day-long armed confrontation at the house Monday as they attempted to evict those inside, after neighbors had complained of harassment, assaults and robberies by MOVE members and unsanitary conditions and a stench at the house.

Goode said he continues to take full responsibility for the action that was taken “because I’m the mayor.”

At the same time, however, he tried to make it clear in the interview that he was not informed about exactly what kind of device his police and fire commissioners were planning to use.

Night fell Thursday with searchers of the rubble finding no additional bodies, nor any evidence of a tunnel system, which police had said they believed MOVE members had dug under the neighborhood. The searchers did find more weapons and bunkers.

Appearing tired after four days of turmoil surrounding the bombing, Goode, interviewed in his City Hall office, also sought to reconcile conflicting official accounts of the tragic and controversial incident.

Mayor, Family Threatened

In discussing threats against him and his family since the siege of the house, he asserted that for his wife and three children, the episode is “difficult but it’s calm.”

Amid continuing criticism and questions about the handling of the confrontation with MOVE, a great deal of speculation has centered on how the episode will affect Goode’s political career--particularly because he has been considered a potential candidate for national office.

The 46-year-old mayor put that to rest Thursday, saying he intends to run for one more term as mayor in 1987 and then quit politics to write and teach in college. He called the decision unrelated to the MOVE bombing.

‘Art of Leadership’

“So often we work until we die,” Goode said, adding that he would like to write a book on “the art and science of leadership.”

Goode has said he learned of the plan to use the bomb during a three-minute conversation with Managing Director Leo A. Brooks--his eyes and ears at the scene of the siege--20 minutes before the device was dropped to destroy a heavily fortified bunker on the roof of MOVE’s house.

Brooks told him the bomb was a “concussion device,” Goode said in the interview. The mayor quoted Brooks as saying: “We have to find a way to get that bunker off there.”

The mayor said he answered: “That sounds like a reasonable plan.”

Sought to Avert Trouble

He said he was determined to avert trouble between MOVE and neighbors who had complained to him about the group’s harassment of residents and health code violations.

According to Goode, the neighbors had said to him: “If you don’t solve this, we will.”

“If the situation had gone through another summer, something would have jumped off out there,” Goode said.

Asked why he did not go to the scene himself during the siege Monday, Goode said MOVE members “basically had threatened to kill me,” and “I think they would have followed through.”

The threats continue, he said, including telephone calls to his daughter’s school. Security measures for himself and his family have been increased, Goode said.

Suspected Stockpile of Arms

Officials have said they bombed the house even though they suspected that MOVE had stockpiled weapons and ammunition and doused the dwelling with gasoline. Goode asserted that officials believed the firearms were located in the basement and that thousands of gallons of water from firemen’s hoses had washed the gasoline away.

At an afternoon news conference, Police Commissioner Gregore J. Sambor first said that during the siege police fired back at MOVE members when a woman and child were surrendering, but by the end of the news conference, Sambor was saying, “No fire was returned for fear of hitting the child.”

Sambor was terse and testy through much of the hour-long news conference.

Similarly, Fire Commissioner William C. Richmond bristled over questions concerning a decision to delay fighting the fire, complaining that his integrity and ability were being unfairly questioned.

Danger to Firemen

He has said firemen would have been in danger; other officials have said they wanted to allow the bunker to burn to destruction before putting out the fire.

During the interview and at the news conference Goode vigorously defended his policy of delegating authority to Richmond and Sambor.

“The mayor of the city cannot do everything,” he said. “You have to delegate.” He called the fire an “accident” and said, “You can’t manage yourself out of an accident.”

Goode announced plans to replace the destroyed homes at $80,000 each, and he said a $2-million emergency relief fund was being established for the homeless. Financial donations have poured into the city.

Polls Support Goode

Local public opinion polls indicate that residents support Goode’s handling of the MOVE affair by substantial margins, and a group of black clergymen Thursday announced approval of his actions.

But some blacks resent seeing the city’s first black mayor held responsible for a tragedy suffered apparently by blacks only.

Novella Williams, a neighborhood activist, said Goode should acknowledge that he erred in accepting advice of “militaristic” white subordinates.

Williams, president of Citizens for Progress, a civic and human rights group, said: “He should come clean and say, ‘Hey, I blew it,’ and then he should let some heads roll.”

Goode stood by his decision not to fire anyone. “If people want someone to resign,” he said in the interview, “then the mayor ought to resign.”

He asserted that by next week his work schedule would be 90% back to normal and that his city’s image would suffer no lasting damage.

He likened his city’s problems to an earthquake in Los Angeles or crime and grime in New York City. Despite those problems, he said, people still go West and “go around singing ‘I Love New York.’ ”