Torresola mortally wounded White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt, who killed him in return fire.

The Party repudiated the "Free Associated State" (Estado Libre Asociado) status that had been enacted in 1950, as the Nationalists considered it to be a continuation of colonialism.

These were suppressed by the Puerto Rico National Guard with strong military force, including the use of planes,[9][10][11] 500-pound bombs, and 50-calibre machine guns.

[12] In New York City, nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, after learning of the failure of the October 30 uprising, developed a plan to assassinate Harry S. Truman in order to raise world attention to the Puerto Rican independence movement and the government's suppression of the uprisings.

Collazo chambered a round and fired the weapon just as Birdzell was turning to face him, and shot the officer in his right knee.

[15][16][page needed] After hearing the gunshots, Secret Service agent Vincent Mroz ran through a basement corridor, stepping out of a street-level door on the east side of the House, where he opened fire on Collazo.

"[21] Meanwhile, Torresola had approached a guard booth at the west corner, where he took White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt by surprise, shooting four times at close range and mortally wounding him with a 9×19mm German Luger.

[15][16] Torresola was standing to the left of the Blair House steps to reload when Truman looked outside his second floor window, 31 feet (9.4 m) from the attacker.

[citation needed] At that same moment, Coffelt left the guard booth, propped against it, and fired his .38-caliber service revolver at Torresola, about 30 feet (10 m) away.

[15] Afterwards, Truman commented that he was not frightened by the attack: since he was a combat veteran of the First World War, he "had [already] been shot at by professionals [i.e. German soldiers].

Cressie Coffelt responded with a speech absolving the island's people of blame for the acts of Collazo and Torresola.

While in prison, he gave an interview telling of his long devotion to the Nationalist Party and cause of Puerto Rican independence.

[27] At the time of the assassination attempt, the FBI arrested Collazo's wife, Rosa, on suspicion of having conspired with her husband in the plan.