$10-Million Lawsuit Filed in Slayings at McDonald’s

The families of three men killed by Los Angeles police and a fourth man who was wounded after they robbed a Sunland McDonald’s restaurant filed a $10-million lawsuit Wednesday, charging that the officers used excessive force and murdered the three men.

The lawsuit was filed against the city, Mayor Tom Bradley, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and more than 100 other defendants.

The Police Department’s Special Investigations Section, whose members opened fire on the robbery suspects Feb. 12 when one allegedly pointed a gun at the officers, was called a “death squad” in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The suit charges that the mission of the Special Investigations Section is to execute criminal suspects and that members of the unit used excessive force when they shot the four men, thereby violating their constitutional rights.

“No one denies these four men were up to no good,” said Stephen Yagman, the attorney who filed the lawsuit. “But America’s system of justice requires that guilt be determined in a court of law, not before a trial.

“These death squad members knew that a crime was going to be committed and then laid in wait and murdered them,” said Yagman, who specializes in civil rights suits against law enforcement personnel.

Police and city officials declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday. Previously, police had said the shooting did not violate any laws or departmental policies.

An investigation by The Times in 1988 found that the Special Investigation Section surveillances often ended with criminals being killed or wounded. The Times found that the squad was involved in more shootings than any other unit in the Police Department.

The three men killed in the 2 a.m. shooting in the 7900 block of Foothill Boulevard were Herbert Burgos, 27, and Jesus Arango, 25, both of Venice, and Javier Trevino Cruz, 20, of Hollywood. Coroner’s officials identified Cruz as Juan Bahena but friends and an attorney for his family said his real name is Javier Cruz.

The fourth man, Alfredo Olivas, 19, of Hollywood, was in good condition at County-USC Medical Center, where he is recovering from gunshot wounds. In addition to robbery, he has been charged with the three deaths of his alleged fellow bandits.

The four men were shot by special investigation section officers investigating a string of nine fast food restaurant robberies, including eight McDonald’s units. Police said that Burgos and Arango were former employees of the McDonald’s chain and used their knowledge of the restaurants’ operations to direct the robberies.

Burgos, according to the lawsuit, was “blasted repeatedly in the back while fleeing the car that had been turned into a veritable coffin.” The suit concludes that the four men were shot “in cold blood.”

The suit was filed by Olivas; Burgos’ wife, Elizabeth Burgos, and his mother, Julia Gomez; Arango’s son, Jesse Arango, and the youth’s mother, Raquel Moreno, and Cruz’s mother, Filadelfia Cruz. Elizabeth Burgos is also Jesus Arango’s sister.

In addition to Gates and Bradley, the suit names members of the Police Commission, the Special Investigations Section and 100 unnamed officers and city employees as defendants.

Yagman said he represents clients in two other lawsuits against members of the squad stemming from unrelated shootings of criminal suspects.