Businessman John Edmond upset by police, fire fighters reaction in Las Vegas riot

John Edmond had a bad feeling that evening as dozens of angry people began gathering in front of the Big 8 Market on Owens Avenue at J Street. The market was part of the Nucleus Plaza shopping center Edmond owned.

"People were yelling and things started happening in and around the store," he said.

The Korean owners of the market quickly locked up and left.

Edmond watched in horror as people kicked in the store's windows and began looting.

"People were wanting to take advantage," he said. "Before I knew it, someone came from nowhere with a gas bottle and a torch. They threw it in the window and the store goes up in flames."

The fire department showed up, but only briefly. They pulled out because of reports of gunfire. Police simply circled the shopping center, Edmond said.

"I just couldn't understand why they wouldn't do nothing, why they just let it burn down," he said.

The fire destroyed the store and quickly spread through the shopping center, damaging a nonprofit job training agency, a post office, a nonprofit medical clinic and the office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A young man suspected of looting the market perished in the fire.

Edmond, now in his 60s, eventually rebuilt Nucleus Plaza, then sold it to an out-of-state investment group that specialized in revitalizing inner-city properties. He then built an 85,000-square-foot shopping center across the street.

Looking back, Edmond said he was angrier at law enforcement and fire personnel than at the rioters themselves, some of whom he knew personally. The latter have since apologized for their actions, he said.

"They said, 'We didn't know we were hurting you. We didn't really think about it like that,' " he said.

Police and fire personnel, on the other hand, "just left. They thought, 'If it's going to self-destruct, we're going to let it self-destruct.' "

Edmond said he heard no gunshots in the shopping center that night and didn't fear for his own safety because he was well-known and liked in the neighborhood.

Police "didn't know how to handle it," he said. "They never thought nothing like this could happen in Vegas. They weren't prepared."

Edmond believes such riots aren't likely to happen again in the neighborhood because police and local officials have reached out to business owners and others there, even hosting regular open-house events.

"If something were to start happening, I now know who to call and they'll get right over here" before things escalate, he said.

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com.