Latvians March With Body of ‘Martyr’ Shot by Troops : Baltics: A pro-Moscow group claims it is taking power. But the nationalist president of the republic denies it. The Parliament building was re-fortified.

Tens of thousands of Latvians marched through gray, wet streets Saturday behind the body of a man who officials of the independence-minded republic say was killed by Soviet soldiers.

Meanwhile, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported that a pro-Moscow group, the Latvian National Salvation Committee, claimed that it was dismissing the nationalist government and taking power. But Latvia’s president said the report was false.

Before the 2 1/2-mile-long procession for Roberts Murnieks began its slow passage over the damp cobblestones of the Latvian capital, a three-hour funeral service was held in St. Albert’s Roman Catholic church.

Weeping women lined the sidewalks to place flowers beside the embalmed body, which was carried atop the coffin.

“He is our martyr, a martyr for Latvian independence,” said Ina Borisenora, a student. “Any one of us could have been in his place.”

Murnieks, a 39-year-old chauffeur for the Latvian transport minister, was shot Wednesday while driving a government car. The Latvian government said he was killed during a rampage by “black beret” troops controlled by the Soviet Interior Ministry.

Tass reported late Saturday that the Latvian National Salvation Committee had proclaimed that it was transferring all governmental power “into its hands” and dismissing the Latvian Parliament and government. The Tass statement was read on the Soviet evening news program “Vremya.”

But Latvian President Anatoljs Gorbunovs dismissed the statement as a “typical example” of disinformation by the Soviet media.

He said the Latvian public prosecutor will consider criminal charges against the committee.

Three days before the Latvia shooting, Soviet soldiers stormed the radio-television center in the neighboring Baltic republic of Lithuania, acting in the name of a similar pro-Moscow group there. Fourteen people were killed and 230 injured.

The deaths were the first since the standoff in the Baltics began early last year. Lithuania declared independence on March 11.

Fortifications have been erected around that republic’s Parliament building in case of an assault by Soviet troops.

The Lithuanian newspaper Respublika said Saturday that the National Salvation Committee there is led by Kuozas Jermalavic, ideology chief of the Lithuanian Communist Party Central Committee; Jonas Gureckas, a former Lithuanian Parliament secretary, and KGB and army officers.

Latvia declared independence May 4. Estonia, the third Baltic republic, has pledged to restore full independence gradually.

On the day Murnieks was killed, Soviet soldiers shot up a truck, set fire to cars and stopped vehicles randomly at main entrances to Riga. They frisked and terrorized people and fired on an ambulance.

When Murnieks drove by in a gray Volga, Latvian officials say, the black berets opened fire with automatic rifles. They say a bullet hit Murnieks, the lone occupant, in the head and he died in a hospital soon afterward.

At the funeral service, thousands of people filed past the body. A choir sang a selection from Handel’s “Messiah,” a Mass by Chopin, and a requiem by a modern Latvian composer.

As the music faded, Janis Kuk, a colleague of Murnieks, howled in grief by the bier. Tamara Maskalnynja, a close friend of the dead man, tried to comfort Kuk.

Outside, motorists sounded their horns for one minute to honor Murnieks.

Latvian men sat by log fires, guarding government buildings.

In front of the Parliament, a huge crane deposited concrete blocks that were cemented together in a protective barrier against military attack. The blocks replaced heavy construction machinery that had served as barricades earlier in the week.