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Crowd at 7th Avenue & West 125th Street
After Naton arrested King, the police officer alleged people in the area attacked individuals and property and obstructed police officers. While there were attacks just west on 125th Street, on Blumstein's department store and on a white man named Thomas Wijstem, around this time, there are no reported events at the intersection. It was the site of attacks on businesses and individuals at other times during the disorder. Businesses on all four corners of the West 125th Street and 7th Avenue suffered damage at some time during the disorder: Regal Shoes on the southeast corner was reported looted, with John Vivien arrested an hour after King for allegedly being one of those who took merchandise, while Herbert's Blue Diamond Jewelry store on the northeast corner, the United Cigar Store on the northwest corner and the branch of the Chock Full O'Nuts restaurant chain on the southwest corner had windows broken. There were eight assaults reported at the intersection, with five occurring at unspecified times that might have been in the aftermath of King's arrest (the assault on Morris Werner was an hour prior to King's arrest, and two other assaults occurred several hours later, on Emma Brockson around 12.35 AM and Clarence London at 1 AM). Three of those assaults involved members of the white press, a reporter Harry Johnson, and photographer Everett Bruer and his assistant, Joseph Martin. Andrew Lyons, a thirty-seven-year-old Black man, was shot at the intersection, likely by police, dying several days later. The final assault, on Betty Willcox as she waited in a parked car, seems likely to have been later in the disorder as she described the intersection as empty and the streets full of debris from damaged stores. No one arrested during the disorder was charged with those assaults.
The only source of details of the events allegedly leading to King's arrest is the District Attorney's case file. No information is provided in the lists of those arrested in which he appears or in the 28th Precinct Police blotter.