Dr Martin Luther King, the Negro civil rights leader, died in hospital here yesterday after being shot in the head by a sniper outside his hotel room.
Police put out a wanted bulletin for ╥a young white male, well dressed,╙ who was seen running from a brick building across the street from the Lorraine Hotel, where Dr King was shot while standing on the balcony of his second storey room.
Officers surrounded the car and the hotel. He was taken to St Joseph╒s Hospital. Early reports indicated that police have possession of the weapon. Police said his assailant had dropped the weapon, while running down Main Street, about a block from the shooting. The man had jumped into a blue car and driven off.
There were reports that police and civilian cars had pursued and fired upon a car carrying three white men, that sped out of the city. Police also hustled two young white men into the police station.
Police reported that sporadic acts of violence broke out in the Negro section of the town, as news of the shooting spread.
Dr King, aged 39, held the 1964 Nobel Peace prize. He was in Memphis to lead marches by striking garbage workers. His march on Wednesday ended in violence, in which one person was killed, 62 injured and 200 arrested.
Federal District Judge Bailey Brown issued a temporary injunction on Wednesday banning any march for 10 days. But after hearing arguments by Dr King╒s lawyers and senior police officers, the judge said he would decide later today whether he could head another march on Monday.
Dr King had been the subject of repeated assassination threats over the past 10 years, and there had been at least two serious attempts on his life.
