Assailant in ’92 Riots Arrested in Fatal Shooting

Damian Monroe Williams, whose televised attack on truck driver Reginald Denny came to symbolize the fury of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of killing a man whose body was found in an alley in central Los Angeles.

Police said Grover Tinner, 43, was shot to death after a dispute with Williams “at a house used by people selling and using narcotics.”

Williams, 27--still on parole in the Denny attack--surrendered to Los Angeles police at the 77th Street station at about 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, several hours after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was booked on suspicion of murder and taken to the main county jail, where he was being held without bail.

Police said that according to witnesses, Williams and Tinner were at the house at 1749 W. Gage Ave. at about 12:05 a.m. Tuesday when they began to argue. The witnesses reportedly said that as Tinner started to leave, Williams opened fire.

Tinner staggered into an adjacent alley and collapsed. Police, summoned by neighbors who heard the shots, found his body.

Investigators said that when Williams surrendered, he was accompanied by an entourage that included several representatives of the Nation of Islam.

Williams was convicted in 1993 of mayhem and assault for his role in the attacks on Denny and four others at Florence and Normandie avenues during the 1992 riots.

As television news cameras rolled, Denny was dragged from his truck and severely beaten. Williams threw a brick that struck Denny in the head and then performed a victory dance over the fallen truck driver, spitting on him.

In addition to severely injuring Denny, who is white, Williams, who is black, attacked three Latinos and an Asian who were nearby.

Judge John W. Ouderkirk characterized each of the attacks as “an exceptionally violent act perpetrated on exceptionally vulnerable people. . . .”

Under state guidelines that effectively cut most sentences in half, Williams served less than four years before being paroled.

The widespread and destructive riots erupted in the spring of 1992 after a state jury in Simi Valley failed to convict four Los Angeles police officers charged in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, a black motorist. Two of the officers later were convicted in federal court and sentenced to prison terms.