KING CASE AFTERMATH: A CITY IN CRISIS : Firefighter Shot During Riot Back Home With Only a Giant Welt

Firefighter Lenny Edelman has been injured on the job before--but never by a bullet.

Friday, Edelman was back home in Escondido, an incredible black-and-blue welt on his left thigh serving as his own souvenir of the riots that have stricken Los Angeles.

Edelman, 32, was shot in the thigh while fighting one of the hundreds of Los Angeles fires ignited by protesters and opportunists in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. Thanks to his heavy jacket and pants normally intended to deflect heat, the bullet that had his name on it was so slowed that it literally bounced back out of his leg after penetrating the skin.

“Just call me lucky,” he says. He only wishes now he had found the bullet on the pavement before he was carted off to the hospital Thursday afternoon.

Edelman, 32, was the first firefighter shot in Los Angeles during the rioting while putting out fires.

His assailant got away, but Edelman thinks he knows who the gunman was--the same fellow who taunted the firefighters when they pulled up to the burning furniture store at 98th Street and Vermont Avenue.

Edelman, who commutes to Santa Ana for his firefighting job, got to his station house as normal about 7 a.m. Thursday. At lunchtime, his engine company was dispatched to a staging area in Los Angeles, only to be dispatched immediately to a blaze even before his truck’s engine could cool.

A crowd surrounded the burning building, which already had its roof devoured by the flames. The marching orders were simply to cool the fire so it wouldn’t ignite the nearby buildings or homes.

One man walked out from the crowd and strutted obnoxiously alongside the assembled firetrucks, taunting and jeering, Edelman said. At one point he whomped on the back of the battalion chief--who simply kept walking, stoically ignoring his attacker. All the while, the man’s sidekick videotaped his actions, like some trophy for later replay.

Edelman’s truck was ordered to lay a line from a fire hydrant down the block, and he was worried about the reception he would meet from the crowd.

“A lot of people were standing around, and nobody was giving me a hard time,” Edelman said. “One guy said he was really thankful for what we were doing and how hard our job looked. I kind of had the sense he was watching out for me.”

Edelman and his partner charged the hose with water, then joined the other firefighters in their attack on the building. In a few minutes, they were ordered to shift to the back of the building.

Edelman was pulling on the hose when he heard the shot and felt like he had been knocked down by a baseball bat cracking into his left thigh.

“I had heard war vets talk about it, about being shot, the hot poker and all that. This was pretty much like it, but the impact was a big surprise.

“I tried to get my head together as fast as possible. I didn’t know if the guy would come up and shoot me again. I was wondering what would happen next, and just that fast the police had come up to me with their guns drawn. They were right there.”

The gunman got away, and Edelman can only assume, he says, it was the taunter who had confronted the firefighters a few minutes earlier.

Edelman was rushed by ambulance to Robert F. Kennedy Hospital in Hawthorne. X-rays were taken, and no bullet was found. He hurt like hell, Edelman said, but at least there would be no need for surgery.

Thursday night Edelman was taken from the hospital to the home of a Hawthorne fireman who treated him to a steak-and-potatoes dinner. He was then driven back to Santa Ana, and on Friday he was back home in Escondido. He figures to be out of work for a couple of weeks.

In retrospect, Edelman said, he has no doubt that the assailant meant to kill him.

“I think this guy wanted to kill somebody to make a name for himself. To be a big man,” he said.

“I don’t have any bad feelings toward the people of Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s just that this guy was obviously a bad seed, a bad apple, making everyone else look real bad.”

Times Staff Writer Leslie Berkman contributed to this story from Santa Ana.