Has anyone here ever witnessed a shooting?

[kwassa]

72. I was right there, and I lived in Los Angeles 17 years.

I lived on Cochran Avenue just north of 6th Street, two blocks west of La Brea, one block north of Wilshire. Olympic was 4 blocks south. Olympic and Pico were not burning the first night, the riots started way south of that. Things were burning on Pico and Olympic on Friday, May 1st, and I saw the smoke plumes rising all around me. I watched a gang that was trying to break into Adrays on Wilshire, as was most of the neighborhood, who was also photographing them. Armed guards that were hiding at first eventually chased them away. Around the corner from where I lived was a Radio Shack that looted, and my favorite photo store, Samy's Camera, was on fire a few blocks north. All the gas stations up and down La Brea were torched.

I commuted through the riot the day before when we were dismissed early from work. I used to drive down Jefferson into Culver City.

Edit to add:

1) I can find no record of any helicopter being shot down.

2) Here is a list of all the people who died during the riot, and how they died. A wide variety of circumstances all over the city. They weren't gunned down by machine guns.

http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/soc220/Lectures220/AfricanAmericans/LA%20Riot%201992%20Deaths.htm