William Cann, Chief of Police in Union City, California, was shot at a community meeting on June 11, 1974, at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in the Decoto neighborhood. A sniper using a .30-caliber rifle fired from about 60 feet away; Cann was hit twice in the neck and three civilians were also wounded. He received medical attention but later died of his injuries on August 29, 1974.

The killing was tied to outrage over an April 1974 police shooting of Alberto Terrones by Union City patrolman John Miner. Authorities had ruled Terrones’ death a justifiable homicide after reports that Terrones had stolen from a grocery store and advanced on Miner with a knife. The assassination was claimed by the Chicano Liberation Front, which framed the attack as revenge for Terrones.

In 1981 four men were arrested and charged in Cann’s murder. Leonard Baca was identified as the triggerman and was convicted of second-degree murder in 1984. Does anyone who lived in Union City at the time remember the tensions around the Terrones shooting or the 1974 church meeting?