Four minutes after the shooting - and before he heard the all-points bulletin - a Paterson police officer was chasing a speeding white car which was leaving town. The car got away.

As he returned to Paterson, the same officer heard the radio bulletin and stopped another white car, leased by Rubin Carter, about 14 blocks away from the Lafayette Bar. Carter was in the back; John Artis, a 19-year-old college-bound scholarship-student, was driving; John Royster was in the front.

The officer recognized Carter who said he and his friends had been at a local club and were going to his home for some money. Artis (who had never been in trouble with the law) had not been speeding and the officer did not see any weapons. Since the bulletin had warned police to look for two - not three - black men in a white car, Carter and his friends were not detained.

Fifteen minutes later, Carter's car was observed outside the La Petite Bar about 10 blocks west of the Lafayette. About five minutes later, the car was sighted for a third time, with only Carter and Artis in the vehicle. This time the police escorted the car and its occupants to the crime scene.

No one at the crime scene identified Carter and Artis as the killers. The police then took the pair to the hospital where Tanis (who died a month later) and Marins could also not identify them.

There is some controversy about the lie detector test both men took. The results are now lost, but Carter's lawyer later asserted both men passed it while the prosecution seemed to say the results show the pair may not have committed the murders themselves but probably knew who did. Carter and Artis were released about 7 p.m. on June 17th. They were not charged at that time.

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