By Hanna Kang
June 25, 2023
In 1992, Los Angeles erupted in anger. More than 60 people lost their lives in the five days of violence, looting and arson. In the aftermath, it was found that the city suffered $1 billion in damages.
The unrest unfolded when four Los Angeles Police Department officers were caught on videotape beating Black motorist Rodney King. Their acquittal on Wednesday, April 29, 1992, sparked the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, the nation’s first multiethnic uprising and one of the worst riots in modern U.S. history. Tragically, as the Los Angeles Times dataset reveals, of the 63 people killed during the riots, 23 deaths remain unsolved.
Blacks and Latinos made up 75% of the victims, with 28 Blacks and 19 Latinos losing their lives during the riots. Most of them were male, and as for the victims' age, they ranged from 15 to 87.
Homicides made up nearly 60% of the cause of death in the riots. In one tragic unsolved case, Gregory Davis Jr., a 15-year-old Black teen, was fatally shot Wednesday, April 29, 1992, near the intersection of Vermont Avenue and 43rd Street in Vermont Square. He was transported by friends to County-USC Medical Center, where he died. In another equally tragic case, Edward Song Lee, an 18-year-old Asian man, was allegedly shot and killed by friendly fire on Thursday, April 30, 1992, in Koreatown. Lee, a Korean American, was attempting to protect shops near 3rd Street and Hobart Boulevard when he was apparently shot by fellow Korean Americans who mistook him for a looter.
Most deaths occurred in Los Angeles, but there were some that happened up in the San Fernando Valley and the Inland Empire. In Pomona, which is the outlier in this dataset, Meeker Gibson, a 35-year-old Black man, was shot and killed Friday, May 1, 1992, in an apparent drive-by shooting at a telephone stand at a gas station at Holt and Loranne avenues.
All the code and data for this project is available on GitHub.