Tensions remained high that summer through the night of Friday, July 14 when a fight broke out at a local diner, The White Star.
Afterwards, about 40 young black men left the diner and marched back to their housing project in the West End section of Plainfield.
Police from surrounding jurisdictions were called in and the crowds finally dispersed when a heavy rain started to fall early Sunday morning.
On Sunday afternoon several hundred people gathered at Green Brook Park to hear the local Director of Human Relations talk about the situation in the city.
Some reported that the police dismissively referred to the gatherers as "boys" in urging them to leave the park, which was taken as racially inflammatory and may have led to anger.
When the officer tried to leave the area to get help, he was overtaken by a mob and was beaten with a steel grocery store cart, stomped and eventually shot and killed with his own service revolver.
The police were anxious because of the large number of guns now on the streets and the Plainfield Fire Department Station was under constant gunfire for five hours.
Dozens of black residents later filed suit against the government claiming that their constitutional rights had been violated during the search for the stolen carbines.
Officer Gleason was the only person killed during the riot and in December 1968, a jury convicted two people, a man and a woman, of murder in his death.
Like many cities, Plainfield suffered a decline from the stigma of the riots, and many of the burned and looted businesses remained vacant for over four decades.
[13][14][15] Playwright TyLie Shider has used the events of 1967 Plainfield as a backdrop for some of his work, including The Gospel Woman and Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family.