POLICE KILLING OF 2 MEN IS DISCUSSED

Civil rights leaders met Wednesday with St. Louis County Prosecuting
Attorney Robert P. McCulloch to discuss the fatal shooting of two men
outside a fast-food restaurant in Berkeley.

St. Louis Urban League President James Buford said the leaders would meet
next week to decide what action, if any, to pursue in the deaths on June
12, 2000, of Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley, both 36.

"They had some questions (about the shootings), and I was happy to answer
them," McCulloch said later Wednesday.

Attending the meeting besides Buford were: activist Percy Green; the Rev.
B. T. Rice, president of the Black Leadership Round Table; Richard Gaines,
chairman of the Round Table's public safety committee; and Michael Lockett,
a member of the committee.

Also attending was Clayton defense attorney Don Wolff, general counsel to
the Urban League.

Earlier this month, Buford called for prosecutors to reopen their
investigation. He made the comments after reading an account of the grand
jury's inquiry in the Post-Dispatch. The account was based on tapes of
grand jury testimony.

Of the two-hour meeting Wednesday, Buford said McCulloch was "very
forthcoming. We had questions prepared by Mr. Wolff, and he answered all of
them."

Buford said they also asked McCulloch to play the security tapes from the
Jack in the Box restaurant where two undercover detectives shot Murray, a
suspected drug dealer, and Beasley, a passenger in Murray's car. The
officers said they fired because they feared for their own safety.

"We had seen the tapes before," Buford said. "We wanted McCulloch to give
us his interpretation. It was a very amicable meeting, nonconfrontational.
We had an open dialogue."

Rice said the group intended to reach a consensus at the meeting next week
"and have one unified effort."