May 2, 1970

After the riots in the streets, the police and some students helped clean up the downtown area. While they were there, rumors began spreading about attacking the ROTC. The ROTC is the Reserve Officer Training Corp on the Kent State campus. Since the Vietnam war started, many university students in America tried to get the ROTC off their campus. Since the rumors were spread and were taken seriously, the university placed a curfew on the students and made them stay on campus at all times. At night, students met at the Commons and started marching towards the ROTC. On their march they collected many more students to join in on the torching of the ROTC. They broke a few windows on the building and then set it on fire. Police were near the ROTC and saw it burst up in flames, but they made no attempt to stop the students. The police waited until the firefighters arrived to take care of the hazardous situation. When the firefighters arrived, the students began to slash their hoses and tried to keep them away from the ROTC until the building completely burned to the ground. The students weren't counting on the police to get involved, however the police began throwing tear gas into the crowd for it to disperse, allowing the firefighters to get to the burning ROTC building. The students retreated back to the Commons to watch the building burn to the ground.