<P> When it became clear that the crowd was not going to disperse, a group of 77 National Guard troops from A Company and Troop G, with bayonets fixed on their M1 Garand rifles, began to advance upon the hundreds of protesters . As the guardsmen advanced, the protesters retreated up and over Blanket Hill, heading out of the Commons area . Once over the hill, the students, in a loose group, moved northeast along the front of Taylor Hall, with some continuing toward a parking lot in front of Prentice Hall (slightly northeast of and perpendicular to Taylor Hall). The guardsmen pursued the protesters over the hill, but rather than veering left as the protesters had, they continued straight, heading toward an athletic practice field enclosed by a chain link fence . Here they remained for about 10 minutes, unsure of how to get out of the area short of retracing their path . During this time, the bulk of the students congregated to the left and front of the guardsmen, approximately 150 to 225 ft (46 to 69 m) away, on the veranda of Taylor Hall . Others were scattered between Taylor Hall and the Prentice Hall parking lot, while still others were standing in the parking lot, or dispersing through the lot as they had been previously ordered . </P> <P> While on the practice field, the guardsmen generally faced the parking lot which was about 100 yards (91 m) away . At one point, some of them knelt and aimed their weapons toward the parking lot, then stood up again . At one point the guardsmen formed a loose huddle and appeared to be talking to one another . They had cleared the protesters from the Commons area, and many students had left, but some stayed and were still angrily confronting the soldiers, some throwing rocks and tear gas canisters . About 10 minutes later, the guardsmen began to retrace their steps back up the hill toward the Commons area . Some of the students on the Taylor Hall veranda began to move slowly toward the soldiers as they passed over the top of the hill and headed back into the Commons . </P> <P> During their climb back to Blanket Hill, several guardsmen stopped and half - turned to keep their eyes on the students in the Prentice Hall parking lot . At 12: 24 p.m., according to eyewitnesses, a sergeant named Myron Pryor turned and began firing at the crowd of students with his . 45 pistol . A number of guardsmen nearest the students also turned and fired their rifles at the students . In all, at least 29 of the 77 guardsmen claimed to have fired their weapons, using an estimate of 67 rounds of ammunition . The shooting was determined to have lasted only 13 seconds, although John Kifner reported in The New York Times that "it appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer ." The question of why the shots were fired remains widely debated . </P> <P> The adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard told reporters that a sniper had fired on the guardsmen, which remains a debated allegation . Many guardsmen later testified that they were in fear for their lives, which was questioned partly because of the distance between them and the students killed or wounded . Time magazine later concluded that "triggers were not pulled accidentally at Kent State ." The President's Commission on Campus Unrest avoided probing the question of why the shootings happened . Instead, it harshly criticized both the protesters and the Guardsmen, but it concluded that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable ." </P>

Who gave the order to fire at kent state
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