Less Looting, Vandalism Bring Relief to Residents : Violence: Police have arrested 675 people on various charges. The 17 injured include 2 officers. And 56 structures have been damaged.

Reports of less looting and vandalism Saturday brought a measure of relief to San Fernando Valley residents, who had furiously stockpiled groceries and braced for the spread of violence to their neighborhoods.

“The Valley is about as quiet as a church,” Capt. Patrick McKinley, the Los Angeles Police Department’s assistant commander in the Valley, said Saturday afternoon.

Over two nights, vandals in several neighborhoods of the northeast Valley had broken dozens of storefront windows and stolen merchandise, including tires, shoes, liquor, clothing and stereo equipment. Merchants hit by vandalism spent much of Friday and Saturday cleaning up, hoping that the attacks were over.

Korean merchants, reacting to police warnings that they would be targets, formed security patrols but said Saturday that they had no confrontations with looters.

About 150 National Guard troops were assigned to protect Valley stores and shopping malls, Police Sgt. Tom Todaro said. The troops on rooftops and sidewalks were an odd sight for shoppers at the peaceful Topanga Plaza mall in Canoga Park.

By Saturday afternoon, police had arrested 675 people in the Valley, including 67 for looting, McKinley said. The Van Nuys Jail, which housed more than 300 of those arrested, was near capacity by Saturday morning, police said.

Most of the arrests were for curfew violations, burglary and other riot-related crimes, McKinley said. About half of the arrests were for felonies.

Two Los Angeles police officers have been injured in the Valley, one seriously. And two National Guardsmen were treated at a hospital for minor injuries in a traffic accident Saturday.

Thirteen other people have been injured, three seriously, since the outbreak of violence Wednesday, police said. Two of the seriously injured were shooting victims.

Fears of food shortages sent Valley residents on supermarket shopping sprees. From Calabasas to Sherman Oaks, store managers said they sold record amounts for the weekend.

“Friday’s total was more than $100,000,” said Randy Parks, assistant manager of the Ralphs supermarket in Chatsworth. “That’s an increment of about $55,000 more than any other day of the year.”

About 125 people from the northeast Valley met with Los Angeles officials in Pacoima on Saturday. Some praised and others criticized police work in their neighborhoods.

Two nights before, roving mobs of as many as 200 had broken windows and looted stores in Panorama City, Lake View Terrace, Pacoima, Arleta and Sylmar.

Charlotte Bedard, who owns a shop in Pacoima, said, “I never saw a police cruiser” when there was trouble in her neighborhood.

But Capt. Tim McBride, head of the LAPD’s Foothill Division, which is responsible for the area, said: “We went out there and rounded up the gang members who were looting and burning. We were high profile. We made over 100 arrests.”

McBride said his station, despite being the scene of a mass demonstration a couple nights ago, on Saturday received an outpouring of support from the community, which donated hundreds of rolls, cakes, pies and cookies for the officers and National Guard troops stationed there.

“At least someone likes us,” Officer Carlos Solano said sarcastically.

National Guard troops assigned to the Valley began their vigil Friday night at the Panorama Mall, which had been closed Thursday after looters broke windows there. They were also assigned to protect the Northridge Fashion Center and Sherman Oaks Fashion Square.

Commercial areas north along Van Nuys Boulevard were among those hardest hit by vandals and looters. But aside from the burning of a small market and a strip mall on Parthenia Street west of Van Nuys Boulevard, the Valley was spared the arson fires that swept whole blocks in other parts of Los Angeles.

A total of 56 Valley structures, including five homes, have been damaged since Wednesday, police said. All but two suffered minor damage, such as broken windows.

Korean merchants in the Valley slowly let down their guard. They restocked shelves and tried to resume business.

Since Thursday, at least half a dozen Korean-owned stores in the Valley have seen broken windows, vandalism and arson, merchants and community leaders said. Proprietors of many of the rest of an estimated 850 Korean businesses in the Valley were afraid that it could happen to them.

Authorities had warned that Korean stores in the Valley were being targeted for fire bombings. Although none occurred, the Koreans, uncertain about police protection, took matters into their own hands.

On Thursday and Friday night, merchants at the Korean Shopping Plaza in Van Nuys blocked its entrances with cars. They emptied shelves, dimmed lights and mounted a 24-hour patrol. They were aided by 30 young people, some of them armed, answering a call for help on a Korean-language radio station.

The owner of computer stores in Van Nuys and near Koreatown first moved his merchandise into the Valley store. On Friday, that did not seem safe enough, so he took everything to his home in Granada Hills, his partner said.

A 200-person patrol of Korean-owned businesses was to be canceled Saturday after two nights.

“I don’t think we’re doing the watch tonight,” said So Hyun Chang, publisher of the Valley Korean News.

Chang said many of the estimated 30,000 Korean-Americans in the Valley attended the peace rally in Koreatown. Many others, he said, have relatives and businesses there and went to help with Saturday’s cleanup.

Chong Tai Park, unshaven and dispirited, said he opened a grocery store in the Valley to escape inner-city problems.

“I’ve never owned a gun,” said Park, 44, owner of the Valley Korean Plaza Market in Van Nuys. “But, now, I’m thinking . . . I may need a gun.”

Times staff writers David Colker and Hugo Martin contributed to this story.