Larry Reed
Reed, the lead singer of an up-and-coming R&B vocal group called The Dramatics, is in Detroit with his band looking for a recording contract. The group have set up a showcase for local scouts at a music venue in Detroit, but because of the riot the venue is closed and the group told to return home. They try - their bus is attacked by rioters, and so both Reed and his bodyguard stay at the Algiers Motel. Reed initially feels safe at the motel, and there is quite a jovial atmosphere on his first night.
The following day he witnesses Krauss's brutality and Temple's murder, and that, coupled with the trauma of his experience watching the riots escalate, really traumatize him. Although he leaves the city safely he never returns to professional music again. .
Melvin Dismukes
Dismukes is a security guard who has been employed at a local grocery store to protect both the store and those working inside it from the rioters, who are determined to storm it or set it ablaze. He also works closely alongside the members of the National Guard who have been deployed to assist keeping the peace. He works alongside the guardsmen and the police officers during the riots and as a result is charged with murder alongside them. He is acquitted, and ultimately moves out of Detroit, resuming his life as a security guard and living peacefully in the suburbs.
Phillip Krauss
Police officer Krauss is one of those bad apples that makes the barrel look bad. He favors his gun over any other form of law enforcement. When first called to assist at the scene of the riot he chases after a man he has seen looting, and shoots him despite orders to the contrary. He is not fired immediately and remains in post whilst the shooting is investigated. He kills Cooper when he sees him trying to escape from the Algiers Motel, and knowing that this, too will be looked at under a microscope, plants a knife next to his body to give the impression that Cooper was threatening him with a weapon.
Krauss goes on to terrorize the motel guests, and stages a mock exectution in another room to scare them into confessing what they know about the sniper.
After the riots, he is charged with murder, but since the only evidence against him is the confession of his fellow officers, the case against him is very weak and he is quickly acquitted.
Julie Ann Hysell
Julie Ann is a young girl who enjoys life. She is with friends at the Algiers Motel when the riots occur, and at first all seems safe there, until Cooper fires a shot as a prank, scaring her. She is caught up in Krauss's terrorizing and seems for a moment in danger of rape as she and her girlfriend Karen Molloy are taken upstairs away from the other motel guests, and their clothes removed. Luckily for her, Krauss is beginning to get worried for his own survival as a cop and so she is able to leave. She later turns in Dismukes and Krauss.
Hysell leaves Detroit, gets married and has a family.
Carl Cooper
Partying at the Algiers, Cooper is a troublemaker who does not seem to think before he does something stupid. The something stupid in this case is firing blanks from a gun during a riot. The first time, he fires the pistol inside the hotel bar with the intent of scaring his friends. The second time, he fires into the crowd of rioters trying to scare the National Guard, but he ends up giving them the impression that there is a sniper in the motel, and this assumption is the first domino to fall in what happens at the motel later. When he sees the police coming to the motel he tries to escape but is killed by Krauss as he does so.
Fred Temple
The only reason that Temple is in Detroit at all is his job as bodyguard to Larry Reed. After their vehicle is attacked, Reed and Temple check in to the Algiers Motel, where they enjoy their first evening in the bar with new friends, but also experience huge trauma as the motel descends into violence. Temple manages to make it through Krauss's terror in the Motel, and is told that he is free to leave, but he has seen Pollard's body in another room and is not able to stop telling Krauss about this. Krauss shoots him to stop him from telling anyone else.
