Washington police explain why A-protester was killed

December 10, 1982

A nuclear protester who held the Washington Monument under siege for 12 hours was shot and killed as he attempted to speed away from the landmark in a van he claimed was loaded with dynamite.

The van was found to contain only boxes of ''junk,'' police said. The man was identified as Norman Mayer, a nuclear foe from Miami who had regularly demonstrated outside the White House. Police officials said they were willing to wait out Mayer's stay at the monument's base, but under no circumstances would they have let him take his van off the grounds and roam through the nation's capital.