bombed and strafed Jayuya and neighboring Utuado. 500-pound bombs, and 50-calibre machine guns were used. The town of Jayuya was badly damaged as a result. Plans for the assassination In New York City, Nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo, after learning of the failure of the October 30 uprising, developed a plan to assassinate President Harry S. Truman in order to raise world attention to the Puerto Rican independence movement and the government's suppression of the uprisings. They had learned that Truman was living at the Blair House, while the White House was being renovated. The two men realized that their attempt was near-suicidal, and that they likely would be killed. Torresola, a skilled gunman, taught Collazo how to load and handle the guns they would use, as his experience had been with other types. They took the train from New York to Washington, DC to reconnoiter the area. On November 1, 1950, they moved into action. Attack Torresola approached Blair House, located on Pennsylvania Avenue, from the west side, while Collazo walked up behind Capitol police officer, Donald Birdzell, who was standing on the steps of the Blair House. President Truman was napping in his quarters on the second floor. Collazo tried to shoot Birdzell in the back, but had failed to chamber a round in his pistol, and the gun did not fire. Collazo chambered a round and fired the weapon just as Birdzell was turning to face him, and shot the officer in his right knee. After hearing the gunshots, Secret Service agent Vincent Mroz ran through a basement corridor, stepping out of a street-level door on the east side of the House, where he opened fire on Collazo. Mroz stopped Collazo with a bullet to the chest while he was on the entrance steps. Two other officers also shot Collazo, in what was described as "the biggest gunfight in Secret Service history." Meanwhile, Torresola had approached a guard booth at the west corner, where he took White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt by surprise, shooting four times at close range and mortally wounding him with a 9×19mm German Luger. Three of those shots struck Coffelt in the chest and abdomen; the fourth went through his tunic. Torresola shot police officer Joseph Downs in the hip, before he could draw his weapon. As Downs turned toward the house, Torresola shot him in the back and in the