On June 26, 1975, FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were shot and killed in the line of duty. Leonard Peltier, who was associated with the American Indian Movement, was tried in US District Court. He was convicted by a jury for the murders and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
The incident arose in the aftermath of the occupation of Wounded Knee two years earlier.
June 26, 1975, FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams entered the Jumping Bull compound in Oglala intending to serve an arrest warrant on Jimmy Eagle. The agents began following a red and white van that they believed contained Jimmy Eagle. In fact, the vehicle contained Peltier and two other AIM members. Peltier believed that the agents were looking for him, not Jimmy Eagle and that they intended to arrest him on an outstanding warrant for attempted murder. The van pulled over and gunfire erupted. The agents stopped their cars on the road. Shots soon rang out from the windows of homes in the nearby Jumping Bull compound, as well as from near the tree line. Transmissions received from the agents between 11:45 and 11:50 a.m. first reported them following "some guys in a pickup," then later, "They're going to shoot at us," then "We're pinned down in a cross-fire between two houses," and finally, "I have been hit."
The federal government eventually obtained indictments on murder charges against Peltier and three others. The others were arrested, but Peltier had fled the United States for Canada.
At trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the other defendants were found not guilty or charges were dropped.
Peltier was arrested in Canada and in June 1976, was extradited to Rapid City. His trial was held in Fargo in April 1977. The jury deliberated only six hours and unanimously concluded he was guilty of two counts of murder in the first degree.
Charges that stemmed from the shooting death of two FBI agents on this June 26, 1975.
Production help is provided by Brad Tennant, Dakota Wesleyan University