Families of Suspects in Holdup Sue for $10 Million
The families of robbery suspects killed by Los Angeles police and a fourth man who was wounded after a holdup at 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 by Stephen Yagman, who specializes in civil rights suits against law enforcement personnel.
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 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.
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