Suspect Tells Investigators He Spit at Denny, Attacked 2 Others : Riots: Anthony Lamar Brown’s statement says the trucker did not provoke assault. It strengthens case against him and Damian Williams.

Anthony Lamar Brown, one of five men accused in the beating and robbery of Reginald O. Denny, has confessed to spitting at Denny and has told investigators that he did not hear the truck driver say anything that would have provoked his attackers, according to a copy of his confession obtained Wednesday.

In addition, police reports and Brown’s statement show that he admitted attacking two other people. Investigators also said Brown joined in the attack on Denny after Damian Monroe (Football) Williams hit the truck driver with a rock, a statement that supports an earlier confession made by Williams but which his lawyers refuse to discuss.

A summary of a tape-recorded interview conducted with police says that Brown, reputedly a member of a South Los Angeles street gang known as the Eight-Tray Gangster Crips, confessed to attacking a Latino man who was getting off an RTD bus at Florence and Normandie avenues.

“Following that attack, he admitted approaching Reginald Denny after Denny was attacked by Damian Williams, who threw a rock at Denny’s head,” the police report says. “Brown admitted flashing Eight-Tray gang signs toward the news helicopter and then spitting at Denny while Damian Williams yelled obscenities at Denny.”

The comments attributed to Brown, which the reports say were made after he waived his right to meet with a lawyer, are almost sure to bolster the prosecution’s case--not only against Brown but Williams as well. In addition to implicating Williams in the Denny attack, they also chip away at the allegation that Denny provoked the violence, a charge that has been raised by residents of the Florence and Normandie area and that Williams’ lawyers have said could be a “substantial and pertinent issue” in the trial.

Dennis Palmieri, a lawyer for Williams, would not comment on Brown’s statement. Rick Sternfeld, the public defender representing Brown, also declined to comment.

Beyond their potential significance in court, the documents in Brown’s case provide a candid and disturbing glimpse into the violence that erupted at Florence and Normandie, as passersby were swept up in the anger and vented their rage against non-black motorists.

In his statement, Brown, 24, said he was watching television with his family as the not guilty verdicts were read in the Rodney G. King beating case. Brown said he was outraged and left the house about 10 minutes later, wandering over to Florence and Normandie to check on the growing commotion there.

“I heard a lot of people yelling ‘Rodney King,’ ‘F--- the police!’ ‘Get the white people!’ and ‘Get everybody who (isn’t) black!’ ” Brown’s statement quotes him saying. Businesses already were being looted, Brown added, and Tom’s Liquor Store, which was located at the intersection, was full of people and broken glass.

Standing in front of the store, Brown saw the Latino man get off the bus. The crowd swarmed around the man, who still has not been identified, and Brown told police he joined in.

“I kicked him because he was Mexican and everybody else was doin’ it,” Brown said in his statement.

“When the riot first started, I got caught up in it and did some stuff real early like taking the Mexican’s money, throwing the Mexican on the ground and spitting on Mr. Denny,” Brown added. “After that, I chilled out and just mostly watched.”

Brown, who appeared in court briefly Wednesday, is the fifth person charged in the Denny attack and robbery, and statements attributed to all five indicate that they were part of the attack--though some of the statements are not signed and some of the suspects say they were only peripherally involved.

In his statement, Brown admits all of the charges against him and one crime that he is not charged with. His statement is signed.

Brown, whom police say goes by the nickname “Ant Dog,” is charged with misdemeanor battery for spitting at Denny, as well as felony assault and robbery of another motorist, Manuel Vaca. He has not been charged with attacking the unidentified Latino man who was beaten at the bus stop, but those charges could be added if the man is identified.

While some supporters of the Denny suspects have suggested that the truck driver provoked the attack that left him critically wounded, statements from the defendants, especially by Brown and Henry Keith (Kiki) Watson, appear to contradict that.

“I never heard Mr. Denny say anything at any time,” Brown told police in his statement. Watson’s statement quotes him saying that Denny “didn’t do anything to me. He was just white in the wrong place.”

Documents in Brown’s case also reveal for the first time that investigators have interviewed Denny, who told them he has no recollection of the beating but vigorously denied that he provoked the crowd.

“He told us he has heard that people were saying he taunted the crowd by making racial comments,” Los Angeles Police Detective Guy Bourgeois wrote. Denny “was quite upset about (the accusations) because anyone who knows him would know that that was not true.”

In his statement to police, Denny said he was listening to an all-music station on the radio while driving his sand-and-gravel truck through South Los Angeles on the afternoon of April 29. Denny added that he had not followed the King case closely and was not aware of the verdicts when he pulled his truck into the Florence and Normandie intersection.

Although Denny said he tried to pull around another truck that was being ransacked, he was slowed by pedestrians and then his passenger window was shattered. “He said he was startled and his heart ‘kind of skipped a couple of beats,’ ” the police report says, adding “that’s the last thing he remembers until waking up” in the hospital.

Denny’s co-workers also have been interviewed about him and whether he ever made racially derogatory remarks. Without exception, they told police that he has not.

Jim Finch, a night-shift truck driver who has known Denny for six years, told police that Denny never made ethnic jokes or slurs in front of him.

Another friend and colleague, Chad Clark, agreed. Clark is quoted as saying that he had “never heard Mr. Denny ever make a racially motivated comment about any ethnic group. Mr. Clark, who is black, said he has had some problems (with other truck drivers) due to his ethnicity . . . but never Mr. Denny.”