Deputy Shot Boy in Back in Riots, Autopsy Shows : Shootings: Several victims of police gunfire were on drugs, reports say. Some wrongful death suits planned.

Autopsy reports made public Monday confirmed that an unarmed 15-year-old Inglewood boy was shot in the back by a sheriff’s deputy during the Los Angeles riots and disclosed that several other victims of police gunfire were under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they were killed.

The coroner’s office had initially reported that Mark Garcia was shot in the chest, although a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigator later acknowledged that the youth was shot in the upper back. The family of Garcia, one of 10 people shot and killed by law enforcement officers during the height of the unrest, has filed a $5-million wrongful death claim against the Sheriff’s Department.

Another autopsy report said that Brian Andrew, shot during a tussle with a Compton police officer after a looting incident, had a blood alcohol content of 0.23%--almost three times the legal limit allowed for drivers. Andrew, 30, also had PCP and codeine in his system when shot in the face by Detective Stone Jackson as they grappled in an alley after a foot chase near a looted shoe store.

Another victim, Salvadoran Army veteran Marvin A. Rivas, 25, had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system when he was struck five times by National Guard gunfire as he allegedly ran a barricade with his car.

During five days of unrest, 10 black and Latino men, ages 15 to 38, died at the hands of law officers from the Sheriff’s Department, the National Guard and the Los Angeles, Compton and Pasadena police departments. A total of 45 people died as a result of the rioting, according to police investigations.

Survivors of three people killed by law enforcement officers have hired attorneys to file claims and possible lawsuits against police agencies for wrongful death. In several other cases, eyewitnesses have questioned initial police accounts.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is responsible for investigating each officer-involved shooting case to determine whether the use of force was justified. The reports, delayed because prosecutors did not dispatch investigators to the shooting scenes because of safety fears during the riots, are expected to be completed in two to three months.

The autopsy report in the Garcia case provides evidence that “this was just an outrageous shooting,” said attorney Walter J. Wabby, who is representing Garcia’s mother, Guadelupe.

“The bullet wound clearly entered the right side of the back just behind the armpit,” said Wabby. “Even under the worst-case scenario . . . that doesn’t justify shooting him in the back.”

Guadalupe Garcia said: “I still feel as if it had happened today because I am very sad to have lost my son the way I did . . .”

Preliminary findings from the coroner had said the Inglewood youngster was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest on the second afternoon of the rioting. An initial Sheriff’s Department report alleged that Garcia was one of four looters of a jewelry shop in a Hawthorne Boulevard mini-mall who fled in a Ford Tempo and engaged in a running shootout with Deputies Wayne Beckley and Jeffrey Moore. The deputies caught up with the suspects in a nearby parking lot and returned fire, killing Garcia, who turned out to be unarmed.

However, sheriff’s investigators have since confirmed that Garcia was scaling a fence when he was shot. Investigator Ronnie Lancaster, who could not be reached for comment on the autopsy report Monday, last month confirmed witnesses’ reports that Garcia was struck below the right shoulder blade.

Lancaster said the shooting was justified because another youth on the fence allegedly fired at the deputies before they shot Garcia, who they had thought also had a gun. The officers involved in the shooting could not be reached for comment.

Lawyers also have been hired by the families of Salvadoran immigrant Franklin Benavidez, 27, who Los Angeles police say was shot after pointing a shotgun at officers while fleeing from a gas station he tried to rob at Western and Vernon avenues; and Howard Martin, 22, of Pasadena, an innocent bystander struck in the forehead by a ricocheting Pasadena police bullet during a firefight between police and unruly party-goers outside an apartment complex.

Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. said Monday he is preparing a legal claim against the Pasadena Police Department on behalf of Martin’s mother and three children.

“It really is a sad case,” said Cochran.

In several cases, the autopsy reports shed little light on the circumstances surrounding the shootings.

The reports show that Dennis R. Jackson, 38, and Anthony J. Taylor, 31, had alcohol and cocaine in their blood when they were killed by LAPD Metro Division officers at the Nickerson Gardens housing project the first night of the rioting. Friends of Jackson and Taylor had said the pair were unarmed and spent the evening drinking looted beer in a parking lot adjacent to the housing project before fleeing police gunfire.

Jackson was shot in the back and Taylor was hit in the back of the neck and head, their autopsy reports said.

According to police, the pair were part of roving groups of snipers who were firing at officers in an intense exchange of gunfire at the housing project.

“Details regarding incident are, as yet, unclear,” wrote a coroner’s investigator. “However, initial report is that decedent was found dead by police as they swept through the area after an exchange of gunfire with snipers.”

The autopsy report on Cesar Aguilar, 18, shows the Honduran immigrant was struck twice in the abdomen by gunfire from Metro Division officers who had stopped more than 40 suspects in the wake of a liquor store looting at the corner of 6th Street and Westlake Avenue.

The officers have claimed they fired after Aguilar pulled what appeared to be a gun from his waistband and pointed it toward them. The “gun,” they said, turned out to be a plastic toy with a black barrel.

Last week, however, three people who were arrested in the looting incident told The Times that Aguilar had no object in his hands when shot by Officer Joan Leuck.

“The cop told him ‘don’t lift your head up,’ and he lifted it up,” said Cynthia Triana, 34, who said she was also on the ground no more than 10 feet from Aguilar. “. . . The boy didn’t have nothing in his hands.”

Contacted Monday, Leuck reiterated that Aguilar had pulled out a toy gun. “In his hands, it looked real,” said the 10-year veteran. “The thing is that when you are at five yards or 20 feet away, you have to make a quick decision.

“This whole thing is sad,” she said. “The riot is sad. The shooting is sad. This person died for a stupid thing, a toy gun. In his last photos, he has several packages of Juicy Fruit gum spilling out of his pocket. That’s what he looted, Juicy Fruit gum. I’ll never forget that.”

Times staff writers Marc Lacey and Victor Merina and staff member Lilia Beebe contributed to this story.