[3] Essex is believed to have specifically sought to kill white people and police officers due to racism he had previously experienced while enlisted in the Navy.

Frank also encouraged Essex to read literature about individuals such as Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who together had founded the Black Panther Party.

[16] Several months after Essex's acquaintance with Frank, in August 1970, he became involved in a physical altercation with a white NCO moments after hearing the individual state his belief "how beautiful" it must have been in decades past when "a nigger went to sea it was below decks, in the galley".

[20] At the subsequent hearing, Hatcher provided a vigorous defense of his protégé, praising his work ethic and stating the decision for his desertion had been influenced solely by ongoing racial discrimination.

The judge conceded these factors were the cause and sentenced Essex to a lenient punishment of thirty days' restriction to base and forfeiture of $90 of his pay (the equivalent of about $710.00 as of 2023)[21] for two months.

[32] In September 1972, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) announced the formation of the Felony Action Squad, aimed at reducing the number of violent crimes in the city.

[37] Days before New Year's Eve, Essex wrote a letter addressed to WWL-TV, signed "Mata", in which he described his intentions to attack the New Orleans Police Department on December 31.

He cited the primary justification for his impending attack as being vengeance for the deaths of the "two innocent brothers" killed in the Southern University civil rights demonstration the previous month.

[38] At approximately 10:55 p.m. on New Year's Eve 1972, Essex parked his car and walked along Perdido Street, a block from the NOPD, armed with his Ruger .44-caliber semi-automatic carbine, his .38-caliber revolver, a large supply of ammunition, a gas mask, wire cutters, lighter fluid, matches, and a string of firecrackers all stashed inside a green duffel bag.

[40] Weatherford instinctively dove for cover behind a parked car, and then turned to see the fellow cadet he was relieving, 19-year-old Alfred Harrell, run across the sally port to his aid.

"[39][n 4] Having fired six rounds in this initial stage of his attack, Essex fled by climbing a chain link fence and running across the I-10 expressway, having detonated several firecrackers as a diversion.

Blappert then fired four shots at the spot where he saw muzzle flashes from Essex's rifle and pulled his partner onto the front seat, waiting for back-up.

Within minutes of Blappert's call, over thirty armed police officers arrived at the warehouse; they sent two dogs into the building to search for Essex, but he had already escaped.

[40] The decision to terminate the search for the perpetrator(s) was made moments after police discovered two carefully placed live rounds pointing at the doors of the 1st New St. Mark Baptist Church (approximately two blocks from the Burkart Building).

[46] At 9 p.m. on January 1, the pastor of the 1st New St. Mark Baptist Church entered his place of worship to find a young, armed black male inside.

He was observed by a 33-year-old local grocer named Joseph Perniciaro entering his premises, Joe's Grocery, with a bloodstained bandage on his left hand on the evening of January 2.

A bag containing several .38 caliber cartridges was also found hidden in a bathroom alongside a letter penned by Essex to the minister apologizing for breaking into the church.

He then carjacked a 30-year-old black motorist named Marvin Albert as he sat in his 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle outside his house on South White Street, shouting: "Hi brother.

[43] Essex then entered the Steagalls' room; he soaked telephone books with lighter fluid and set them ablaze beneath the curtains before dropping a Pan-African flag onto the floor beside the bodies of the couple as he ran toward one of the hotel's interior stairwells.

As both turned to run, Essex raised his rifle and fatally shot Schneider in the back of the head; Roberts reached the safety of a nearby stairwell.

[55] Shortly after 11 a.m., two young patrolmen named Michael Burl and Robert Childress arrived at the hotel in response to initial reports of an armed individual roaming the premises.

At about the same time, Essex shot 43-year-old hotel guest and broadcasting executive Robert Beamish in the stomach as he walked close to the eighth-floor swimming plaza.

[57] Minutes later, a patrolman named Charles Arnold obtained a strategic position offering a prime view of the hotel from an office complex across the street.

[31] Shortly thereafter, Essex shot and wounded a 33-year-old sheriff's deputy named David Munch in the leg and neck as he also took aim at the hotel from the eighth floor of the nearby Rault Center.

As Coleman rolled out of the driver's seat and opened the rear door in order that Palmisano and Solis could be transported to Charity Hospital, Essex fatally shot him in the head.

[59] Shortly after noon, Deputy Superintendent Louis Sirgo organized a rescue party of three men to free patrolmen Burl and Childress, who were believed still to be trapped inside an elevator shaft close to the 18th floor.

[62] Shortly before 9 p.m., after almost seven hours crouched in the cubicle,[62] Essex suddenly charged into the open with his rifle at waist height and his right fist aloft, shouting "Come and get me!"

[65] Ballistic tests upon Essex's rifle would determine his weapon was the same as that used in the December 31 NOPD central lockup and Burkart Manufacturing Building shootings.

The walls of both rooms were covered in bold red and black lettering depicting racial and revolutionary slogans in both the English and several Bantu languages.

"[75] In the weeks following Essex's massacre, several prominent individuals within New Orleans' black community were interviewed with regards to the underlying motives behind his murders.