RIOT AFTERMATH

Here is a recap of the tumult in Westside portions of Los Angeles and other Westside communities:

City of Los Angeles

CRENSHAW DISTRICT

Widespread looting and fires devastated the area Wednesday night and Thursday. Large and small businesses, in mini-malls and large shopping centers alike, were hit. Most Boys’, ABC and Viva food markets within a four-mile radius. A Lucky supermarket at 3901 Crenshaw Blvd. and three Boys’--at Crenshaw and Rodeo, La Brea and Rodeo, and Crenshaw and Slauson--are the only supermarkets that avoided significant damage. Dobson’s food market, a fixture in Leimert Park for 50 years, burned to the ground. A Thrifty drugstore, a Kinney shore store, a large Wherehouse record store and a Security Pacific Bank were destroyed in shopping center fires at Rodeo and La Brea. The Fedco at La Cienega and Rodeo boulevards was looted, and the adjacent Fedco Auto Center was looted and burned. Two furniture stores nearby were also torched. A Firestone tire store at 52nd Street and Crenshaw Boulevard was destroyed by a fire. Crenshaw Square, a medical office building on Crenshaw near 39th Street, was destroyed by a fire. Jazz Etc., a night club in Santa Barbara Plaza, was destroyed by a fire. Looters broke into the Broadway store at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, damaging some fixtures and taking some merchandise, but the mall was otherwise largely spared.

HOLLYWOOD

Dozens of stores were looted and several destroyed along Melrose Avenue and Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, including several T-shirt and souvenir shops. The Hollywood Swap Meet building was razed by fire, and Frederick’s of Hollywood’s flagship shop was emptied by looters carrying armfuls of lingerie. Shoreline Professional Video Systems on Highland Avenue, which rents high-tech equipment for TV and movie productions, was looted, then set afire. The Silo store at Sunset and La Brea was looted. The Consumer Drugs Building, an Art Deco monument nearly 60 years old, was looted and damaged by fire.

MID-WILSHIRE/FAIRFAX

Extensive looting and arson fires reduced portions of the area to rubble. Damaged local landmarks include Bullocks Wilshire, housed in a 1928 building considered an Art Deco masterpiece. A fire at the Scottish Rite Temple was extinguished before it did much harm. Hit especially hard were stores selling photo, video, sound and electronic equipment. Among the targets: Samy’s Camera, 7122 Beverly Blvd., looted and burned; Goodman’s Music, 780 S. La Brea Ave., looted and burned; United Sound and Television, 1081 S. La Brea, looted and burned. A mini-mall including a Radio Shack and Baskin-Robbins was gutted at La Cienega and Pico boulevards. Another blaze destroyed Albee’s Electronics Store at Pico and Fairfax Avenue, as well as a string of Indian shops there. A Vons supermarket at Fairfax and Pico was looted. Several stores were torched farther east on Pico, including a Price Foods supermarket and a Chief Auto outlet. At the Midtown Shopping Center, 100 yards from the LAPD’s Wilshire Division station, a Boys Market and a string of shops were looted and burned. Looters also struck at Kids R Us and Circuit City at La Cienega Boulevard and 18th Street, and a Big 5 sporting goods store at Wilshire and San Vicente. A mobil station at La Cienega Boulevard and Cadillac Avenue was set afire.

DEL REY

A small shopping center at Braddock Drive and Inglewood Boulevard was looted, and a check-cashing center there was burned early Friday. A neighbor, Kevin Evanshen, 24, died attempting to fight the blaze.

PACIFIC PALISADES

Two men were arrested in connection with an attempted firebombing at a Vons supermarket at Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway Sunday night. Vons employees said a car belonging to one of the suspects had been towed from the store’s parking lot early Sunday. Police said the suspects then returned about 11 p.m. to ignite and throw a gasoline-filled bottle at the store’s front wall. A helicopter and police dogs were used to catch one of the suspects who fled the scene. He was found by the dogs. The store was not damaged. Police said there was no indication that the incident was riot-related.

WESTWOOD

Two waves of looters attacked in the early hours after the verdict. The first wave came Wednesday evening, breaking windows before they were quickly chased off. About 2:30 a.m. Thursday, demonstrators from the nearby Federal building moved in and began breaking windows again. Police immediately formed a skirmish line and blocked people from coming into Westwood and cleared out those inside. About 10 stores were damaged, but looting was not extensive. Police cordoned off the area with wooden barricades and flares during curfew hours beginning Thursday evening. No injuries or fires were reported. Three people were arrested for failing to disperse.

VENICE

In the gentrifying Oakwood section, mobs smashed through windows and doors of several homes, in one case setting an Indiana Avenue apartment on fire. By the weekend, more than a dozen National Guard troops with armored vehicles were posted at the fringes of the racially mixed neighborhood to support a stepped-up police presence. Police described the neighborhood, a center of local gang activity, as fairly quiet compared to other sections of Los Angeles, with few beatings, and fires and looting limited mainly to several blocks along Brooks and Indiana avenues and shops along Lincoln Boulevard.

Other Cities

BEVERLY HILLS

Beverly Hills was relatively untouched by violence, but a police chase that began within the city early Thursday ended in a fatal car crash in Hollywood. The car’s three occupants--two men and a woman--were killed when the vehicle hit a fire hydrant just off Santa Monica Boulevard and flipped on its top. Beverly Hills police received reports of sporadic vandalism, such as a shattered plate-glass window at Wilson’s Suede and Leather store at Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards Thursday night. In response, police intensified their patrols. More than 70 people were arrested within city limits, most on weapons charges and on suspicion of possession of stolen property. Public schools and several businesses closed early on Thursday and Friday or did not open. Some movie theaters and playhouses also had shortened hours. No deaths, injuries or fires were reported. Looting and vandalism were confined to sporadic incidents.

CULVER CITY

Looters descended upon the area Thursday afternoon, breaking glass fronts of dozens of stores in the shopping centers around Sepulveda and Jefferson boulevards. Stores hit included Target, TJ Maxx, Wherehouse and Pavilions. Other looting and window-breaking incidents occurred in the downtown area and at Fox Hills Mall. Of the 57 arrests made since Wednesday, only six turned out to be Culver City residents. Firefighters extinguished five small fires in Culver City and also helped fight 35 fires in Los Angeles. No injuries were reported in Culver City, although shots were fired at a police patrol car. Police were reinforced by about 300 National Guards troops at midnight Thursday. No deaths or injuries were reported. Five minor fires were extinguished before major damage occurred. There were reports of looting and vandalism at 19 stores. The 57 arrests included eight for possession of stolen property, 26 for burglary and six for curfew violations.

MALIBU

The only action Malibu saw during the riot was the arrest of three Navy servicemen loaded down with merchandise that sheriff’s deputies said had been looted from Los Angeles stores. The men were pulled over Thursday about 2:30 a.m. for speeding on Pacific Coast Highway. They were headed for Port Hueneme, where they were stationed. No fires, looting or injuries were reported.

SANTA MONICA

Santa Monica reported some close calls, but no looting as police interrupted several burglaries in progress. From Wednesday night through the weekend, 129 arrests were made, including 14 for violating the dusk-to-dawn curfew and 20 for suspected robbery or burglary. Other offenses ranged from disturbing the peace to having materials for a Molotov cocktail in the car. Stolen property from looting in Los Angeles was recovered from cars that had just crossed the city borders, and one man was arrested while trying to sell stolen goods at 7th and Wilshire. An explosion of a Lincoln Boulevard auto shop is under investigation as arson unrelated to the riot. Small, trash can fires were quickly extinguished. Three juveniles were being questioned by Santa Monica police for vandalizing two elementary schools, Grant and Will Rogers. In protest of the King verdict, the youths allegedly used spray paint to decorate the walls with graffiti denigrating whites.

WEST HOLLYWOOD

Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department managed to curtail most trouble, even though stores on nearby Melrose and La Brea avenues in Los Angeles were ablaze. Some suspected looters were arrested with goods apparently taken from Los Angeles businesses. There was one incident of minor looting at a store specializing in Nike athletic shoes. No deaths, injuries or fires were reported, and looting was confined to one store. About two dozen people were arrested, mostly for curfew violations.