before a verdict was issued in the new 1993 rodney king federal civil rights trial against the four officers, korean shop owners prepared for the worst. gun sales went up, many to persons of korean descent, some merchants at flea markets removed merchandise from shelves, and they fortified storefronts with extra plexiglas and bars. throughout the region, merchants readied to defend themselves. college student elizabeth hwang spoke of the attacks on her parents' convenience store in 1992. she said at the time of the 1993 trial, they had been armed with a glock 17 pistol, a beretta, and a shotgun, and they planned to barricade themselves in their store to fight off looters.