Death Toll From Riots Inflated, Detectives Say : Unrest: Of the 60 deaths laid to the disturbances, at least 15 were unrelated to the April 29-May 4 violence.

Investigations of the 60 deaths attributed to the Los Angeles riots show that one-fourth of them were unrelated to the civil unrest.

The death of a Silver Lake man who fell asleep while smoking in bed was included in the coroner’s tally of riot fatalities.

So were the killings of a man who was beaten in a dispute over a few dollars worth of recyclable cans, and another who was shot during a drug deal.

However, all three deaths--and 12 others listed in the coroner’s official tally--had no connection to the unrest, detectives told The Times.

A 25% reduction in the death toll--from 60 to 45--would mean that the recent riots remain the most deadly U. S. civil disturbance in the 20th Century, but not by much. In the 1967 Detroit riots, 43 died. In the 1965 Watts riots, 34 people were killed.

The death total appears to have been inflated in part because the coroner’s office categorized as “riot-related” most homicides that occurred April 29 through May 4 in the county.

“It’s easy to say: . . . ‘Cases on your list, Mr. Coroner, were not riot-related,’ ” said coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier. “At the time, a lot was going on and we were doing the best we could.”

Chief spokesman Bob Dambacher said the office does not plan to lower the number at this time. But, he added, “nothing is set in concrete and when all of the evidence is in and finalized, we’ll probably go back through it and take a look at each (case).”

Law enforcement investigators have not formally questioned the coroner’s figures and say that, for them, riot statistics are secondary to solving the cases.

“We really don’t care if they’re riot-related or not,” said Lt. Richard Molony of Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau homicide division, which is investigating a dozen of the deaths. “I’ll leave the definition of whether something is riot-related to the bean counters.”

Cal State Sacramento professor Anthony Platt, an expert on civil disorders, said it is not surprising that the number of riot-related deaths would drop. It is common for initial death tolls in riots and natural disasters to be on the high side, he said. “In emergency situations, there is a lot of exaggeration that goes on in reporting, in perception, in language that is used. . . . Complexity gets lost.”

In the days since the riots, officials have made dramatic reductions in their estimates of the number of fires and arrests. The estimate of riot-related arrests, which at one time soared to nearly 19,000, later was cut in half.

The number of arson fires, at first reported at more than 5,000, was trimmed to 623. Many of the fires were counted several times, officials said, because dispatchers received numerous 911 calls for the same blazes.

Law enforcement authorities have made homicide arrests in nine of the 60 deaths.

Ten other cases involving shootings by law enforcement officers are being investigated by the district attorney’s office to determine whether any criminal wrongdoing was involved. These investigations have been slowed by the fact that prosecutors, out of safety concerns, did not follow the normal practice of immediately dispatching staff to scenes of police shootings.

In 17 other cases, investigators say they have virtually no leads and little chance of solving the cases.

The riot deaths are receiving no special treatment in a county where 40 homicides occur on average each week, investigators say. “They’re murders, and all murders have the same priority,” Molony said. “Our mission is to solve homicides and put the responsible people in jail.”

Interviews with detectives who have investigated the riot deaths confirm that a majority of those listed by the coroner were clearly riot-related: looters shot by security guards, people whose bodies were discovered in burned-out liquor stores and clothing warehouses, and the 10 young men killed by law enforcement officers.

Others fell into a gray area but still are classified as riot-related by the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Maybe some deaths wouldn’t have occurred if emotions weren’t running rampant,” said Detective Lionel Robert. “People were shooting because other people were shooting. People ask me how many deaths are related to the riot and I can’t say. It’s not a clear-cut thing.”

One death classified as riot-related was that of an 89-year-old South Los Angeles woman, Vivian Austin, who died of a heart attack several days after rioting broke out. Friends said she had been distraught over the violence.

Another case was the death of a 68-year-old Bel-Air man after a grocery store scuffle over produce.

Investigators reasoned that Aaron Ratinoff would never have ended up at the Bob’s Market on Gateway Boulevard in West Los Angeles if the store where he normally shopped had remained open during the riots. The produce manager apparently got angry when Ratinoff dropped some cornhusks on the floor while shopping for vegetables, and the pair tussled. The cause of Ratinoff’s death has not been determined. Police and prosecutors have not decided whether the store employee should face charges.

Coroner’s spokesman Dambacher said the criterion his office has used for riot-related deaths was simple: “Would this person have died at that particular time and that particular place if riots had not occurred?”

However, in 15 cases, investigators said that they had not found any connection between the deaths and the riots.

In the case of the Silver Lake fire, Los Angeles police detectives said they contended from the start that the death of Harry Doller, 56, was not riot-related. Doller, who lived alone in a cottage off of Winslow Drive, “fell asleep with a cigarette and his bed caught fire,” said Detective Andrew Cicoria.

“When we called the coroner that night, we never classified it as a riot-related death,” Cicoria said. “It just happened during the riots.”

George Alvarez, 42, was beaten to death by some homeless people from whom he allegedly stole less than $5 worth of recyclable cans and bottles.

Alvarez’s body was found in front of a recycling center just south of Chinatown. Police arrested Mario E. Olivera, 41, on suspicion of murder, said Detective Jose Reyes. He said Alvarez’s death was not riot-related.

Paul Horace, 38, of Benicia was fatally shot while trying to buy cocaine on the edge of Los Angeles’ garment district, police said. Three suspects, including a 17-year-old, have been arrested and charged with murder.

In West Hollywood, three South Los Angeles residents died when their stolen Datsun slammed into a cinder-block wall as they tried to elude Beverly Hills police.

Officers said the trio--Darnell Mallory, 18; Jerrel Channel, 26; and Juanita Pettaway, 38--fled after officers noticed a defective taillight on their car and tried to halt them. After a high-speed chase down side streets, their car jumped a curb on Santa Monica Boulevard and crashed.

An investigation showed that the three had robbed a man of his wallet in West Los Angeles. “We have no reason to believe this was anything more than a common street robbery,” said Lt. Frank R. Salcido of the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Investigators said four other victims during the first four days of the riots--Edward Travens, 15, of Mission Hills; Frederick Ward, 20, of Pacoima; George A. Sosa, 20, of Los Angeles, and Jose L. Garcia Jr., 15, of East Los Angeles--were killed in typical street gang attacks. On average, there are two gang slayings a day in Los Angeles County, authorities say.

In the Travens case, the shooter yelled, “Where are you from?” just before he fired, said San Fernando Police Detective Robert Ordelheide. Those words are “consistent with gang shootings,” the detective said.

In the Garcia case, the youth was a gang member who was on the turf of a rival gang when he was shot, said Los Angeles Detective Robert Suter.

“It had nothing to do with the riots,” Suter said. “It was just a case of a person being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Aniceto Barajas, 19, a member of the rival gang, was arrested and charged in the teen-ager’s slaying, detectives said.

Sosa was visiting his girlfriend in Huntington Park when a gang member who had been drinking asked him what gang he was in and then opened fire, said Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Sieber.

Several other deaths that investigators have concluded were not riot-related occurred either outside the riot areas or appeared to have nothing to do with lootings, arsons or clashes with police.

In Baldwin Park, east of Los Angeles, the bullet-torn body of Hugo Gutierrez Ramires, 23, was found in a residential neighborhood. In the San Fernando Valley community of Mission Hills, firefighters answering an early morning call discovered the body of photo lab technician Imad Sharaf doused with a flammable substance and set afire.

Kevin Edwards, 35, of Compton was shot after an apparent argument with a friend at a home far from the scene of any disturbances. “It may have been a domestic dispute,” said Detective John Swanson.

Transient Frank Lopez, 36, was struck by a hit-and-run truck on 16th Street south of downtown Los Angeles.

In Altadena, Lucie Maronian, 51, was found stabbed in her home. According to sheriff’s investigators, she was killed after confronting a group of teen-agers who had been chasing her 14-year-old son and his friend from a nearby intersection.

As the two boys hid in the back yard, their pursuers entered the house and stabbed Maronian, investigators said. Odell Whitley Jr., 18, and two juveniles were arrested and charged with her slaying.

“That closes the book on this case,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Hunter.

The final death toll for the riots could rise if additional bodies are found in the rubble of fire-ravaged businesses or if hospitalized riot victims die.

Pasadena evangelist Wallace Tope has remained in a coma since he was beaten while attempting to dissuade looters from ransacking a Sav-on drugstore in Hollywood. Los Angeles residents Leonard Sosa, 23, and Fidel Ortiz, 20, have been charged with attempted murder in the assault, which occurred outside a shopping mall at Western Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.

Police said Tope, 52, was kicked repeatedly in the head as he urged the crowd to turn to Jesus.