CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : THOUSAND OAKS : King Message Left at Shop by Robbers

Three men armed with an automatic rifle who robbed a Thousand Oaks sandwich shop scrawled a message about the Rodney G. King case in mustard on the floor and fled. After entering the shop, the three suspects tied up the employees and took about $700 from the cash register and safe, Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Kelly McIlvain said. The suspects used a mustard bottle to squirt “Rodney King w/s bbp 187 Police,” on the floor, McIlvain said. “I’m not going to hazard a guess or speculate what that means,” McIlvain said. In the California Penal Code, “187” is the reference number for homicide. The penal code numbers, followed by the initials LAPD, have been spray-painted on walls across South Los Angeles since last month’s rioting, worrying some officers that gang members could be plotting to kill police. Although the three suspects wore clothes that could identify them as gang members and carried a weapon similar to those often used by Los Angeles gangs, McIlvain said investigators had not categorized the crime as gang-related.