RIOT AFTERMATH: GETTING BACK TO BUSINESS : Video Captures Police Retreat at Outbreak of Violence : Crime: Amateurs’ tapes show dramatic scenes of looting, arson near intersection where truck driver was assaulted.

Drawn to the corner of Florence and Normandie avenues Wednesday night by cryptic words they heard on a police scanner, two amateur photographers with video cameras captured dramatic images of the first hectic hours of violence.

At point zero, the now-infamous street corner where the Los Angeles riots ignited, they taped police apparently leaving in the face of growing tensions, and then anarchy: beatings, lootings, arson and an occasional act of heroism.

Ironically, amateur photographers had again captured a critical point in Los Angeles history, just as had been done when Rodney G. King was beaten.

The footage, which surfaced Monday, begins with at least 20 officers confronting an angry crowd just north of the intersection where Reginald Denny was pulled from his truck about an hour later.

After several minutes of pushing, shoving and shouting, a voice can be heard over a loud speaker saying: “It’s not worth it. Let’s go!”

The police officers jumped into their cars and peeled away.

The tapes then show black bystanders throwing bottles and other objects at cars passing through the intersection. In one shocking sequence shortly before Denny was attacked, another man was pulled out of his truck and beaten.

As he lay on the ground, his face bloodied, a voice says:

“No pity for the white man. No pity for the white man.”

The two videotapes covering more than a two-hour time period, were shot by Timothy Goldman, a black resident of South Los Angeles, and a friend. USC student Gregory Sandoval acquired the tapes, which were spliced together, after he met Goldman in South Los Angeles. Goldman could not be reached for comment.

“They told me they had a home video, it was no big deal to them,” Sandoval said Monday. “I told them what they had.” Sandoval, after writing a story about the tape for USC’s Daily Trojan, said he then agreed to try to sell it in their behalf.

The Times did not purchase the video, but Sandoval allowed reporters to view it.

It is not clear from the tapes what time the police left the scene after the early confrontation near the intersection. The footage does not show a specific time until shortly after 6 p.m., when the beating and looting had begun. Although it appears that the police never returned, there are unaccounted for gaps over the next two hours.

Still the tapes appeared authentic, according to Kathy O’Hearn, western bureau chief for ABC, who said Monday the network was considering purchasing them. “What you see on the tape matches what we shot from the air,” she said. “It doesn’t look doctored,” But she added: “There are chunks of time missing and I don’t know what that means.”

Since television cameras were not on the ground in the area at that point, O’Hearn said: “These are the only pictures you’re going to see of that melee at the beginning of this riot.”

Sandoval said Goldman told him that at about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday he and a friend heard over a police scanner that officers needed assistance.

The tapes first show a cordon of police apparently trying to keep a crowd of several dozen people from spilling into the street near Florence and Normandie. Sounds of police sirens, a helicopter overhead and people screaming fill the air. There are verbal confrontations, the words indistinguishable. Officers can be seen struggling with a black man being taken into custody.

Then the officers pull out. Sandoval said Goldman told him that the police left without trying to block traffic, seal off the area or warn anyone.

The tapes then show people attacking cars driven by Anglo and Latino motorists caught in the intersection. The attackers use a metal sign advertising Marlboro cigarettes, several bottles, a crowbar and rocks.

Two police cars, sirens blaring, move through the intersection, but do not stop.

Panicked, some motorists back up from the intersection and speed back in the opposite direction. Others blast through the lights.

A Latino motorist is pulled from his old blue sedan. He will be the first of four people on the tape who are beaten. The man runs up the street, abandoning his car, and leaving a female companion behind holding her head.

“Rodney King! Rodney King!” a woman screeches over and over, the way fans scream at a rock concert. The Latino couple is not shown again.

The tapes then show another Latino, beaten and left kneeling on the ground. He then runs away.

“Leave Mexicans alone!” someone yells.

At 6:03 p.m., the windows of Tom’s Liquor Store are shown being smashed. A man grasping a metal pole breaks some glass, while a voice says: “Yes! Yes!”

Whooping and cheering, a group of a dozen or more go inside. One has a Boxer dog, which pulls back on its leash, afraid.

“Break that s---,” a voice says. “Bring all that s--- out.”

A few people emerge carrying beer. “You need cigarettes? Here you go,” a male voice says.

At 6:43 p.m. a man is dragged from a white delivery truck and thrown to the ground as if he were no heavier than a bag of flour. As several black men beat him, a voice can be heard saying in an admiring tone: “Oh, yeah, yeah.”

The driver staggers toward his truck. “That’s how Rodney King felt, white boy,” another says.

At 6:46 p.m., Denny’s cement truck is in the intersection. The tapes do not show him as he is being beaten. But four minutes later, he is shown kneeling beside his 18-wheeler, slowly bringing his hands to his face.

At 7:25 p.m. smoke appears from debris set on fire.

At 7:29 p.m. a car at the liquor store is torched.

At 7:39 p.m. another Latino is shown lying on his back, apparently unconscious. “They poured oil down his throat,” a voice says, “and painted his nose blue.”

Out of nowhere, a black minister holding a Bible stands over the victim like a guardian angel, keeping others away. Staring upward, he holds his hands outstretched, as if pleading for a miracle.

A video store is ignited, then another car.

At 7:57 p.m. fire trucks come down the street. But they do not stop.

“They’re just going to let it burn,” a voice says. “It’s too dangerous for them. They’re going to let it burn.”

Outside the ABC furniture store, a woman hustles away, carrying a lamp taller than she is. The photographer, taping the looting inside the store, shows others lifting cushions and cabinets.

A sign on the wall says: “We Deliver.”