Successful fugitive Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth, who may or may not have been a member of the Black Liberation Army in San Francisco — an extra-violent off-shoot of the Black Panthers — was charged a few years back along with seven other men with murdering police Sgt. John Young at Ingleside Station on Aug. 29, 1971. He was previously accused and arrested for shooting at an officer in South San Francisco in 1968, after being stopped for credit card fraud at a discount store — after which he jumped bail and remained on the lam, around the Bay Area until 1971 or so, and then disappearing to Africa and eventually returning to get a Masters Degree and living, likely under an assumed name, as a husband, father, and college counselor in an undisclosed location. Bridgeforth is now coming clean about the 1968 shooting, for which his attorney says he is willing to accept punishment. But he's looking to fight the existing charge against him in the 1971 murder, for which he was fingered as the getaway driver.

The 67-year-old Bridgeforth is set to turn himself in to San Mateo County authorities tomorrow morning at 8:45 a.m. Says Karen Guidotti, assistant D.A. down there, "It will be interesting to find out what Mr. Bridgeforth has been up to since 1969, and what possible motive he may have to surrender himself at this particular time."

The case, and the announcement of Bridgeforth's surrender, has already caught the eye of conservative law-and-order types who are still pissed off that Obama got elected despite his association with former "domestic terrorist" Bill Ayers. It will be interesting to see if Bridgeforth skirts any accomplice charges in the 1971 case... it should be noted that despite jumping bail in 1969, he was stopped by police in S.F. with a gun in his car, in 1971, and then released because they didn't realize he was a wanted man. So it's not like he was out of town at the time of the crime... we're just sayin.

[Chron]
[ABC 7]
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