Reporter David Clayton surprised by attack in Las Vegas riot

David Clayton was looking forward to covering a peaceful protest march that night, "maybe listening to some speeches."

Then a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, Clayton arrived in West Las Vegas with a photographer in the early evening. Soon he saw hundreds of people leaving their homes and headed on foot toward downtown.

"I didn't sense any anger. I had no premonition of any backlash," Clayton said.

He and the photographer followed along in their car, with Clayton in the passenger's seat.

On Bonanza Road at Main Street, "all of a sudden, everything changed," Clayton said. "People began reversing direction. All of a sudden, there was tension."

Within seconds Clayton saw "a sky full of bottles and rocks," coming at the car.

Clayton, an Army veteran, quickly radioed the newsroom, barking an instinctual: "We are being shelled!"

People pounded the car as they passed. One man swung something - maybe a two-by-four - at the windshield, shattering it. Another man shoved what looked like a cinder block through Clayton's window, gouging a gash in his neck.

"We thought we were in a fight for our lives," he said.

The photographer stepped on the gas. The car collided with others as it made its escape. The entire attack lasted 15 or 20 seconds.

Clayton went to the hospital for stitches. The next day he was back at work. Remarkably, the now 61-year-old doesn't hold a grudge.

"I didn't take it personally," he said. "I happened to be a symbol of society" that night.

Collective anger does something to people, makes them behave in ways they normally wouldn't, he said.

"What I remember most is the collective fury that just welled up from the people. I never experienced anything like that before and never since."

He doesn't believe the local uprising was really about the acquittals in the Rodney King case, though that was the spark.

Through interviews with residents, Clayton realized the frustration stemmed from "the sense that West Las Vegas had been neglected over the years."

People wanted to know: Where are the schools we need? The playgrounds? The grocery stores? The fire and police stations?

"It would be hard not to empathize with their position," Clayton said.

Some good stemmed from the mayhem that night, he said. The city began paying attention and reinvesting in West Las Vegas.

"The greater community reconciled itself to the larger point," Clayton said. "There was a renewed sense of community spirit."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com.