Around 3 April, a local policeman was ordered to guard a hearse which was picking up bodies from the streets and houses of the town.[41] The killings were eliticidal with the aim of erasing cultural history[42] and included "political leaders, businessmen, and other prominent Bosniaks",[37] but also included women and children.[41] A number of Serbs who had attempted to stop the massacre were also killed.[43] An investigation by the ICTY later stated that the victims had been shot "in the chest, mouth, temple, or back of the head, some at close range" and that none had been wearing military uniforms.[41] According to the historian Professor Eric D. Weitz of the City College of New York, the killing of Bosniaks in Bijeljina was a genocidal act.[43] The acts against civilians in Bijeljina and those carried out by the JNA and special forces that followed were an attempt to intimidate and sidetrack the Bosnian government and general public from pursuing independence.[44]