AP SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

LINDA DEUTSCH

LOS ANGELES (AP)—One of the black men accused of beating white trucker Reginald Denny had threatened to ‘‘hit and kill people’‘ because of Rodney King, and later hit Denny with a brick, a witness testified Tuesday.

Gabriel Quintana also testified that defendant Damian Williams attacked him during the riots that broke out after four white policemen were acquitted of most charges in the beating of King, who is black.

Williams, 20, and Henry Keith Watson, 28, are being tried on charges of attempted murder, assault and robbery for attacks on Denny and seven others at the South Central Los Angeles intersection where the riots began on April 29, 1992.

Quintana was the first witness to identify Williams as one of the attackers. He said Williams threw a brick at Denny’s head and then ‘‘he started to dance.’‘

Quintana testified that he was working at a gas station near the intersection where trouble started and that he recognized Williams as someone who had come by before to ask for cigarettes or take gas without paying for it.

On the day of the riots, ‘‘He say, ‘Today I’m going to hit and kill people,’‘’ Quintana said.

‘‘He just said something about Rodney King,’‘ Quintana said when asked why Williams wanted to attack people.

Asked to identify the defendant, he pointed to the counsel table and said, ‘‘He’s here in the shirt and tie.’‘

Quintana, 22, delivered most of his testimomy through a Spanish interpreter, although he quoted the remark about hitting and killing people in both Spanish and in Williams’ language, English.

After the riot started, Quintana said, he left his cashier’s booth and locked himself in a gas station restroom. But he said Williams and others unscrewed the hinges to the restroom door, dragged him out, beat him and pushed his head through the glass cashier’s window.

Williams’ lawyer, Edi Faal, pointed out that Quintana never mentioned Williams’ alleged threats to police.

‘‘During that conversation with Officer (Martina) Villalobos on July 15, 1992, you made no reference to someone may get killed, did you?’‘ asked Faal.

‘‘No,’‘ the witness said.

Quintana also acknowledged that he did not mention Williams’ purported remark when he filed a stolen property report on July 7, 1992, and that the first time he mentioned it was at a meeting with two prosecutors on May 13, 1993.

Asked why he waited so long, Quintana said, ‘‘I don’t know.’‘

Faal accused him of changing his testimony to help prosecutors prove the attempted murder charge.

Also Tuesday, jurors viewed a videotape of a dazed Quintana seated on the ground as rioters stepped around and over him. He is seen getting up and walking away.

Quintana said the rioters took at least $90, a watch and a chain from him. No one was charged in his attack.