Suit Filed by Relatives of Men Slain by Police : McDonald’s Holdup: A $10-million action says the Special Investigations Section’s mission is to execute criminal suspects.

The families of three robbers killed by Los Angeles police and a fourth man who was wounded after a holdup at a Sunland McDonald’s filed a lawsuit Wednesday charging that the officers used excessive force and murdered the three men.

The lawsuit filed against the city, Mayor Tom Bradley, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and more than 100 other defendants seeks more than $10 million in damages.

The Police Department’s Special Investigations Section, whose members opened fire on the men Feb. 12 when one of them 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 SIS 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 said the shooting did not violate any laws or departmental policies.

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 identify 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, under the provision of state law, he has been charged with the slayings of the three other men, as their deaths occurred during the commission of a crime.

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

SIS officers began following the men off-and-on in early January. On Feb. 11, the SIS officers followed them to the Sunland McDonald’s and watched them as they “cased” the closed restaurant for 90 minutes, authorities said.

At 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 12, the four men forced their way into the restaurant before the watching officers could move in to arrest them, police said. Robin Cox, the 24-year-old manager, was the only person inside. She was tied up and forced at gunpoint to help the robbers open the restaurant safe, police said.

After the robbery, the four men returned to a car parked on Foothill Boulevard. After they got into the 1987 Thunderbird, several SIS officers pulled up behind the car to arrest them.

Police said one of the men pointed a gun at the officers, and nine officers fired a total of 23 shotgun blasts and 12 shots from .45-caliber handguns at the suspects. Arango and Cruz were killed inside the car. Burgos jumped out and was shot as he ran up a nearby embankment with a gun in his hand. After the shooting, police found that the men’s three guns were pellet guns.

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, who is also the sister of Jesus Arango, and his mother, Julia Gomez; Arango’s son, Jesse Arango, and the boy’s mother, Raquel Moreno; and Cruz’s mother, Filadelfia Cruz.

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

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

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