Man who tracked JFK killer Oswald honoured

POLICE in Texas, have honoured a man whose “keen observation skills and strong sense of civic duty” led them to Lee Harvey Oswald, who had crept into the back of a cinema to hide shortly after the assassination of president John F Kennedy.

Police chief David Brown presented Johnny Brewer with the Citizen’s Certificate of Merit and praised his selfless act and “exemplary conduct” 48 years ago during a ceremony at the Texas Theatre — the same place Oswald was captured about 80 minutes after JFK was killed on November 22, 1963.

“I’m just so overwhelmed,” Brewer, 70, said after receiving the award and watching a video of himself, then 22, recounting the events.

Brewer, a manager at a shoe store about 90 steps from the cinema, was listening to news reports about the assassination when he heard reports that a Dallas police officer, JD Tippit, had just been killed a few streets away.

A man behaving suspiciously then walked into his shop. Brewer said the man stared at the display in the window and was scar-ed as police cars raced by.

After the last squad car passed in one direction, the man stepped out of the store and walked in the opposite direction towards the cinema.

Brewer saw him go in without buying a ticket and followed him, telling the woman in the box office to call police. Brewer then shared his suspicions with the concessions operator and the two searched the cinema and stood by the emergency exits.

Hearing noise behind his alley-exit door, Brewer opened it only to have police guns aimed at him. The cinema lights went on and Brewer pointed out the suspicious man seated in the cinema. Oswald was arrested after a brief scuffle and yelled: “I am not resisting arrest,” according to evidence Brewer gave to an investigation into JFK’s death.

Oswald was shot dead two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby at police headquarters.