Biography
Gary Tyler was one of the first black students to attend the formerly all white high school in Destrehan Louisiana after a court order forced them to desegregate. As a bus carrying black students left the school it was attacked by a group of 100 to 200 white people throwing stones and bottles at it. A member of the mob was shot in the chaos and police arrived and searched all 65 students on the bus but found no weapon. The bus was searched twice and no weapon was found on it. The bus was taken to a police impound lot and Tyler was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace for talking back to an officer while being questioned. At the police station Tyler was badly beaten by police to try and force him to confess to the shooting but he refused. According to police another detained student allegedly told them during interrogation they saw Tyler fire into the crowd then stuff the gun into the bus seat. That student later said that officers never asked them what happen but simply instructed them to say Tyler had committed the shooting. Police searched the bus again and claimed they found a gun stuffed into a long, clearly visible tear in the seat that was somehow missed during pervious searches. The gun that detectives claimed they found on the bus was government issued and traced back to the Sheriff Department's firing range. Tyler was tried as an adult, found guilty of the shooting and sentenced to life in prison.
