By Frances Woo
February 26, 1970
5:00 PM
William Kunstler, an activist lawyer, gives a speech at Perfect Park.
Richard Underwood is beat and arrested by police for holding a “molotov cocktail”, which was actually an open bottle of wine.
Students start hitting patrolling police cars with rocks in protest of this beating and attempted arrest and the crowd grows to round 500-700 people.
5:30 PM
Windows at Isla Vista Realty, Embarcadero Company, Income Property Management, Ventura Realty, Finear Realty, the Brazen Onager, and the Village Green are broken.
6:30 PM
Someone puts a burning trash can inside of Bank of America and 100-150 officers arrive in full riot gear and begin sweeping the crowd.
Police approached from around the Enco station and the Magic Lantern.
Students tried to flee but were met with more police force and the students turn and charge the officers.
The police run while students hurl rocks at them and then officers in turn throw rocks back at the crowd.
Second batch of police officers arrive from a transit bus parked on Camino Pescadero.
The first group of officers leave on the bus while students continue to pelt them with rocks, breaking five or six windows on the bus.
7:30 PM
Crowd reaches 1,500. A patrol car is burned and overturned in front of American Records on Embarcadero Del Mar. All Isla Vista and campus entrances are roadblocked by police and no cars can get in or out of the area.
9:30 PM
Four cans of tear gas are thrown into the crowd from a 1962 Ford Falcon.
Tear gas is also thrown around “…Isla Vista Realty, on Sabado Tarde, and at the corner of Embarcadero del Norte and Seville” (El Gaucho, 1).
Students block traffic using garbage cans and there’s a second tear gas raid around Village Market and the Bank of America building.
11:30 PM
Someone burns a pile of papers and furniture inside the Bank of America building and soon the whole building is on fire.
12:00 AM
The building burns, the roof caves in, the crowd grows even bigger, and the police place more barricades in the streets.
2:30 AM
Law enforcement agents from other schools congregate at San Rafael Dorm.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff James Webster flies overhead in a helicopter and warns the crowd to either be arrested or disperse.
3:00 AM
Crowd begins to die down.
Police sweep the streets and arrest people who failed to disperse.
Police search apartments of those suspected to participate in the demonstration.
A helicopter shines a spotlight on the streets, searching for crowd members.
4:00 AM
The helicopter leaves.
Someone starts a trash fire at the top of the loop and KCSB members are ordered to leave the Wooden House Restaurant on Embarcadero Del Mar.
4:30 AM
Local hospitals report injuries from that night.
Two people are treated for tear gas burns and two officers are treated for superficial wounds and a face laceration.
Eighteen to twenty five police cars continue to drive by and arrest anyone on the streets for failing to disperse.
6:00 AM
Around 15-20 people were reportedly arrested over the course of this night.