At dawn on August 8, 1978, hundreds of police surrounded the Powelton Village house to execute the eviction. Bulldozers tore down the stockade, firehoses flooded the basement where members and their children sheltered, and gunfire broke out — in the crossfire, Officer James Ramp was killed by a single shot and several officers and firefighters were wounded. MOVE always maintained the fatal bullet's trajectory was inconsistent with any shot from the basement.
As members surrendered, television cameras filmed three officers dragging Delbert Africa from the house by his hair, kicking and beating him unconscious in the street — footage seen around the world. The officers were acquitted at a 1981 bench trial after the judge took the case from the jury; the house itself was demolished the day after the shootout, destroying the crime scene before any defense examination.