Police Seal Off Miami Community in Youth Rampage

Police sealed off 10 blocks of an inner-city Miami neighborhood early Friday after roving bands of youths attacked passing motorists with rocks and bottles and lit fires in the street.

A police spokesman said the incident began around midnight and ended about three hours later. There were no arrests but at least six people were slightly injured and at least three cars and one building were damaged by the youths, some of whom wore pillowcases with cut-out eyeholes on their heads to prevent police from identifying them.

The neighborhood where the disturbance occurred had been tense since last week when a white police officer shot and killed a black teen-ager he believed was threatening him with a gun, which turned out to be a cigarette lighter made to look like a pistol.