GRANADA HILLS : Firefighter Injured in Riot Is Promoted

A Los Angeles firefighter who was shot and critically injured during the riot that followed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case was promoted to captain Monday during a ceremony in which he was surrounded by family members and the colleagues who were with him the night a bullet struck him in the cheek.

Scott Miller, 33, of Granada Hills was presented his captain’s badge by Chief Donald O. Manning at Station 35 in South Los Angeles. Miller, a 12-year veteran, is still recovering from injuries suffered during the April 29 shooting and has not returned to duty. Manning said Miller would be assigned to a station in El Sereno when he is able to return to work.

Department spokesman Michael Little said Miller had successfully completed both written and oral promotion exams before he was injured and was already due to be promoted.

Miller, an apparatus operator before the promotion, was shot while driving a hook and ladder truck to a burning structure on Western Avenue in South Los Angeles after the jury returned not guilty verdicts in the Rodney King beating trial. The bullet was fired from a passing car driving with its lights off. No arrests have been made in the shooting.

Miller was hospitalized in intensive care for more than a month and was released Friday. The bullet that struck him remains lodged in his neck. He is still experiencing numbness in his face and left hand.