Justice Dept. Enters Probe of Miami’s King Day Riot

The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation today into the police killing of a black motorcyclist that set off violent rioting in Miami on Martin Luther King Day, a spokesman said.

Shaken Miamians surveyed burned-out shells of buildings and cars in the wake of a night of violence in the predominantly black Overtown neighborhood.

Police cordoned off the neighborhood and allowed only those with business into the area. Schools in the neighborhood were closed.

The riot erupted on the night of the federal Dr. King holiday and as national attention was focused on the city as the host of Sunday’s Super Bowl. It also rekindled memories of Miami riots in the early 1980s.

“It just exploded,” said City Commissioner Rosario Kennedy as she prepared to enter the 1 1/2-square-mile area with a police escort. “People had been celebrating Martin Luther King’s birthday all day. Maybe they were drunk. We just don’t know.”

The riot began about 8 p.m., about two hours after the death of motorcyclist Clement Lloyd. Lloyd, 21, was shot in the head by a white officer as he was being chased for an alleged traffic violation, police said.

Officer William Lozano, who fired the shot, was temporarily taken off duty. The medical examiner’s office issued a statement today confirming that Lloyd was killed by the gunshot, not by subsequent crash of the motorcycle.