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During the rally, a caravan of cars containing Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party drove by the housing projects. After being heckled by Klansmen, several marchers began to attack the Klansmens' cars with sticks. A standoff ended in a scuffle, whereupon Klansmen and Nazis left their cars and wildly fired into the crowd with shotguns, rifles and pistols. Cauce, Waller, and Sampson were killed at the scene. Smith was shot between the eyes when she peeked from her hiding place. Eleven others were wounded. One of them, Dr. Nathan, later died from his wounds.[3] Much of the armed confrontation was filmed by four local news camera crews.

A witness identified Robert Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as the man who placed the bomb under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. He was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a box of 122 sticks of dynamite without a permit. On 8 October, 1963, Chambliss was found not guilty of murder and received a hundred-dollar fine and a six-month jail sentence for having the dynamite. The case was unsolved until Bill Baxley was elected attorney general of Alabama. He requested the original Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the case and discovered that the organization had accumulated a great deal of evidence against Chambliss that had not been used in the original trial.

In November, 1977 Chambliss was tried once again for the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Now aged 73, Chambliss was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Chambliss died in an Alabama prison on 29 October, 1985.