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Some scenes reverberated in the memories of those who had been attacked. White motorists could only jam down their accelerators, duck their heads and try to speed away from the fusillade of bricks, bottles and bullets aimed at their cars. "There's one, that's a white one!" a black screamed as a yellow Toyota passed an intersection. The driver spun his wheels frantically in an oil slick before escaping the approaching mob. Recalled white Motorist Jim Davis: "The police had put up a roadblock. I couldn't get around it. I went into a U-turn, but my car stalled and they came running at me. I heard them scream, 'Honky!' I got the car into gear and knocked them out of the way. I heard gunfire. I saw a police officer and I screamed, 'What should I do?' He said, 'I've been shot at all night. Do what you have to to get out.' "
Other whites were not so fortunate. Robert Donald, a construction worker, watched in terror from his own car as two young men were dragged from their automobile. Said he: "They stomped and stomped. I cried just like a baby." After Donald fled, Miami HeraId Reporter Earni Young witnessed more cruelty at the same site. Reported Young: "A late-model green car—I think it might have been a Chevrolet Impala—deliberately drove over one of the bodies. I think I saw it rip the man's arm off. The crowd cheered and yelled."
Trying to report the riot, United Press International Reporter Mike Fowler was seized by blacks, beaten and robbed of his wallet. Jeffrey Kulp, ,22, a white passenger in a car being attacked by a mob, was shot in the back and left paralyzed from the waist down. As the car fled, it struck Shanreka Perry, 11, a black girl. Her leg had to be amputated.
Police too came under assault. Officer Frank Rossi tried to help a young white woman who was being kicked. "As I tried to reach for my gun, a guy picked up a huge coral rock and slammed it down on my thigh," Rossi said. "They were all kicking me and calling me names. I was down on my back." Rossi struggled into his car and got away as rocks smashed all its windows. Said National Guardsman Art Chambers, who drove a truck into the riot area to bring food to other Guardsmen: "The sniper fire came out of 10,000 different places and you had no idea of where to look."