Arrested Man Not a Denny Case Suspect

In an early morning raid Friday, FBI agents and Los Angeles police officers arrested a 26-year-old man who had been considered a suspect in the beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny, but by day’s end was thought not to be involved in that attack.

Kevin Dushawn Davis, a felon with convictions for possessing and selling crack cocaine, was being held on suspicion of violating his probation because he had a gun when he was arrested, authorities said. He was questioned about the April 29 attack on Denny, but was not being held in that case.

Confidential informants allegedly identified him as a member of the Eight Tray Gangster Crips, a South Los Angeles street gang. Police say that members of the gang were involved in the attacks on more than a dozen motorists at Florence and Normandie avenues in the early hours of the riots.

According to prosecutors, four of the five suspects in custody for those attacks are members of the gang or affiliated with it. Family members of the suspects deny the alleged gang connections.

Members of a federal-local task force used videotapes and informants to determine that Davis might be the person who hit Denny with a hammer during the assault, which left the truck driver critically injured.

But after more than two dozen agents and officers teamed to arrest Davis and take him to the Police Department’s 77th Street Division Friday morning, they tentatively concluded that he did not match the description of the person they are seeking. Davis--whose police record describes him as 5-foot-10--is said to be slightly taller than the person on the videotape.

Davis is not expected to be charged in the attack on Denny, officers said.

“He (Davis) was arrested, but it is on an unrelated charge completely,” said Police Lt. Doug Young. “He is not under arrest for the Denny beating.”

On a videotape shot by KCOP-Channel 13, the person who investigators initially thought was Davis first appears at 6:46 p.m., just after Denny was dragged from his truck and pressed down to the pavement by one of his assailants. At that moment, one attacker crushes what appears to be a plaster planter over the back of Denny’s head; then a second person, who is pictured wearing a Malcolm X T-shirt, clubs the truck driver with what looks like a hammer or tire iron.

Investigators had believed that Davis wielded the hammer.

Davis was arrested at his 92nd Street home in the 2 a.m. raid, which included about 15 FBI agents and 15 police officers. If no charges are filed in the Denny beating, Davis will be held for allegedly violating probation and on a weapons charge, officials said.

Davis had a 9-millimeter pistol at his house when he was arrested, police said. One condition of his probation last year from his second drug conviction was that he not carry a gun, authorities said.

Five suspects are charged with participating in the beating and robbery of Denny. Damian Monroe (Football) Williams, Henry Keith Watson and Antoine Eugene Miller are charged with attempted murder, mayhem, torture and robbery of the truck driver and with attacking other motorists.

Gary A. Williams is charged with attempted robbery. He is accused of rifling through the unconscious trucker’s pockets. The fifth suspect, Anthony Lamar Brown, is charged with misdemeanor battery. He is accused of spitting at Denny once he was beaten and is suspected of beating and robbing a second victim.

Damian Williams, Gary Williams, Watson and Miller have admitted that they were at the intersection and participated in the attack on Denny, but Miller and Gary Williams told police that they never hit the truck driver, authorities say.