Biography
Welton "Butch" Armstead was a 17-year-old member of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and one of the earliest Panthers to be killed by police. On October 5, 1968, after Seattle police stopped a car reported stolen and an officer chased a fleeing occupant near Armstead's home, Armstead came out with a rifle; officer Erling J. Buttedahl fired and struck him in the heart, killing him. The Black Panther memorialized him among the party's fallen. (The paper gave the date as October 15, 1968; contemporary records date the killing to October 5.)
