National Guard troops and Detroit residents in a calm moment during the riot of 1967. The riot was sparked by a police raid of an after-hours bar in a predominantly black neighborhood, at which 82 people (gathered to celebrate the return of two Vietnam veterans) were arrested, in the early hours of Sunday, July 23, 1967. Confrontations with police quickly escalated into looting, arson, and general destruction on a large scale, which lasted for several days, during which both the National Guard and the Army became involved. When the dust settled, 43 people were dead, 467 were injured, hundreds of buildings had been burned and thousands of stores looted.