Despite a dispute over who fired the shot that killed the officer — during the trial, MOVE’s lawyer suggested it could have been friendly fire by a fellow officer — nine MOVE members were given a sentence of 30 to 100 years in prison for third-degree murder.

As of this writing, all of the surviving MOVE 9 have been freed from prison after being repeatedly denied parole. Two members died while incarcerated. Debbie Africa, the first to be freed, was released on parole in June 2018 after serving 38 years. Chuck Sims Africa, the last to be released, walked out of the Fayette state correctional institution in February 2020.

The group remained active while the original members were behind bars, however — and their troubles with law enforcement weren’t over. By 1981, those who remained outside prison walls had relocated, and continued to broadcast their views on law enforcement and the state through loudspeakers. Clashes with their new neighbors and with law enforcement ensued. In May 1985, following over a year of surveillance, police obtained arrest warrants for four of the house’s occupants, including Ramona Africa, who as a result went on to serve seven years in prison.

After evacuating the surrounding neighborhood, nearly 500 cops showed up on May 13, to serve warrants and attempt to clear the building using water cannons and tear gas.

A gun battle broke out between authorities and those inside. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the fire department blasted the house with 1,000 gallons of water a minute for nearly six hours. Police responded to MOVE’s gunfire by throwing smoke grenades and firing at least 10,000 rounds of ammunition at the house.

Hours later, according to one account, Sambor gave the order that two explosives be dropped above the residential neighborhood from a helicopter onto a fortified structure on the roof of the house.

The explosion ignited several barrels of gasoline that had been stored on the roof, and kickstarted a fire that ultimately consumed the entire block. Sambor reportedly told firefighters on the scene to stand down — to “let the fire burn.” All the while, police continued to pepper the MOVE house with gunfire.

“When we realized that our house was actually on fire, we immediately tried to get our children, our animals, and ourselves out of that blazing inferno,” Ramona Africa recalled in 2017. “But at the point when we were trying to come out, and could be seen...the cops opened fire on us, forcing us back in. We tried several times to get out, but each time we were shot back into the house. This was a clear indication that they didn’t intend for any of us to survive that attack.”

Ramona pulled her young brother, Birdie, out along with her. It wasn’t until she was taken into custody and transferred to a local hospital that she learned that they were the only survivors. The rest of the house’s occupants — six adults and five children — had burned to death.

The city was left reeling. More than 60 homes were destroyed in the fire, and 250 people were left homeless. A cadre of homegrown black radicals had been decimated, their children killed, the sole survivors vilified and, in Ramona Africa’s case, convicted on conspiracy and riot charges.

"MOVE was a pain in the neck for 25 hours a day,” a neighbor whose house had been burned in the fire told The New York Times in 1996. “But we didn't believe the police should have come in here like it was World War III. Those children in that house weren't criminals."