Oswald Arrested; Kennedy's Death Reported

Moments after President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, across town, Lee Harvey Oswald was leaving his Oak Cliff rooming house on Beckley Avenue.

In only a few short minutes, Oswald would shoot and kill Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit and then seek refuge nearby in the Texas Theatre. 

At about 1:38 p.m., as the unforgettable news that the president had been killed began to spread across the nation, the man who would be accused of his assassination would soon be in the custody by the Dallas Police Department.

An observant citizen, Calvin Brewer, aware of the shootings of JFK and Tippit from radio broadcasts, called the police when he noticed the sirens nearby and a suspicious-looking man duck into the theater without buying a ticket.

"He just looked funny to me," Brewer is quoted as saying in the Warren Report. "His hair was sort of messed up and looked like he had been running, and he looked scared, and he looked funny."At

1:45 p.m., Dallas police secured the the exits to the theater and began looking for the man described by Brewer. 

After a short scuffle with police, Oswald was disarmed, subdued and arrested. By 1:51 p.m. he would be on his way to Dallas police headquarters, suspected of killing officer Tippit.

Forensic testing of the revolver recovered during Oswald's arrest would later formally implicate him in the officer's death.

Source: Warren Commission Report

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