Robert James Hutton also known as "Lil' Bobby” born on April 21, 1950 and at 16-years old he became the first member and the first treasurer of the Black Panther Party. Hutton met Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale at the North Oakland Neighborhood Anti-Poverty Center, a "government-funded agency that employed local youth to work on community service projects. On April 6, 1968, two days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and with riots raging across cities in the U.S., Hutton was traveling with Eldridge Cleaver and other BPP members in a car. The group were stopped by two Oakland Police officers and had a confrontation. The two police officers were shot. Hutton and Cleaver fled to an apartment building where they engaged in a 90-minute gun battle with the Oakland Police Department. Some incoming bullets had also caught fire. Ultimately, Cleaver was wounded, and Hutton voluntarily surrendered to avoid getting burnt alive. According to Cleaver, although Hutton had stripped down to his underwear and had his hands raised in the air to prove that he was unarmed, Oakland Police shot the 17 year old Hutton more than 12 times, leading to his death. The Police report claimed that Hutton was attempting to run and was wearing a trench coat and his hands were not visible.
