Violent Death Is Rare Fate for Detectives on Homicide Beat

Homicide detectives weren’t supposed to die this way, the investigators who knew Russell Kuster were saying Wednesday. Street cops, sometimes. Not homicide investigators.

“We’re not exposed to the same degree of danger that patrol officers deal with,” said Detective Rick Swanston. He spent eight years working Hollywood homicide under Kuster, slain Tuesday night in a gun battle in a Hollywood restaurant. “We usually know what we’re dealing with. Folks who get hurt on the job, they usually don’t know the seriousness of the situation they’re getting into.”

Homicide detectives are supposed to come in when the gunfire is over, put together the evidence and nail the bad guy. Then, after a long career of strange, frustrating hours, of cases closed and murders unsolved, they are supposed to collect a pension.

“Everybody wants to do their time and retire,” said Detective Leroy Orozco, a 28-year veteran of the force, 24 years in homicide. Kuster had been a friend for more than 20 years. “Then you can all get together, a bunch of old (guys) talking about the old days.”

Detective jobs are coveted in police work, and none is more coveted than a job in homicide. Kuster’s generation has witnessed technical advances such as computerized records and DNA fingerprinting, but detectives have also seen the growing menace of drugs, gangs and high-powered weaponry.

In the end, Kuster wound up a victim of the sort of seemingly random violence that plagues Los Angeles. He is now part of the 1990 body count that is on a pace to exceed the city’s record for homicides--1,028 in 1980. As of Sept. 30, 762 slayings had been recorded within city limits.

Like every other Los Angeles murder case, Kuster is now the subject of a three-ring binder notebook in which homicide detectives assemble interviews and evidence. Above Kuster’s desk hangs a sign that says:

Hollywood Homicide

Our Day Begins When Yours Ends

According to investigators, Kuster was in the cocktail lounge at a favorite hangout, the Hilltop Hungarian Restaurant in the Hollywood Hills, when the man with the 9-millimeter pistol equipped with laser sights came in, terrifying the patrons. So Kuster identified himself as a police officer and tried to calm the man. The gunman fired four rounds at Kuster.

As Kuster went down, mortally wounded, he managed to fire seven rounds at his killer, striking him three times.

The homicide detective thus solved his own murder.

The assailant was identified as Bela Istvan Marko, 37, a native of Hungary who lived in Las Vegas. That, too, proved ironic. Hollywood detectives had arrested him in 1982 in the fatal shooting of his roommate. Kuster signed the paper work. Marko had claimed self-defense and the district attorney chose not to file charges. Police said there is no connection between Marko’s earlier arrest and the shoot-out Tuesday night.

Retired homicide detective Hank Petroski was one of the detectives who investigated the 1982 shooting. Petroski had partnered with Kuster both in patrol and in homicide, and worked under his command before retiring this year after 25 years with the LAPD.

“You understand some guys are going to get off, the D.A. is not going to file on others. It’s frustrating but you can’t let it bother you so much you can’t do your job,” said Petroski.

“If end result is the arrest, you’re happy. It’s not only satisfaction of work done, but relief for the surviving family members,” Orozco said. “But then the torture really starts because of our court system. . . . That’s the toughest part of the job, getting into the court system and dealing with the b.s.”

Kuster’s slaying wouldn’t get that far. Detectives wept at Hollywood Division on Tuesday night. One of Kuster’s men broke down at a press conference Wednesday. At other divisions, detectives felt the loss as well.

“We’ve got guys here with tears in their eyes,” Lt. John Zorn of the robbery-homicide bureau at Parker Center said on Wednesday morning. “They’ve known him for a long time.”

Kuster had put in 24 years on the force, his last 12 as a supervising detective in Hollywood homicide.

“He was the best supervisor I ever had,” said Swanston, who now heads the homicide unit in the West Valley Division. “He was very fair. . . . He demanded a lot from you, but he had a tendency to get the best out of his men.”

Petroski, who now works as an insurance investigator, said Kuster had told him he was going to work one more year and retire.

OFFICERS KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY

One of the Los Angeles Police Department’s best - known and admired officers, veteran homicide detective Russell Kuster, was killed in an exchange of gunfire Tuesday night. His death raised to 175 the number of LAPD officers who have died in the line of duty since 1907. Of those, 88 officers were killed by suspects, 36 in car crashes, 31 in motorcycle collisions, 6 in helicopter accidents and 14 in other incidents, including bomb explosions. These are officers killed since 1985. NAME: Thomas Williams DIVISION: N. Hollywood DATE KILLED: 10/31/85 CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot in ambush by an accused robber he had testified against the day before NAME: Arleigh McCree DIVISION: Bomb Squad DATE KILLED: 2/8/86 CIRCUMSTANCE: Killed attempting to defuse bomb NAME: Ronald Ball DIVISION: Bomb Squad DATE KILLED: 2/8/86 CIRCUMSTANCE: Killed attempting to defuse bomb NAME: Marshall Randol DIVISION: Valley Traffic DATE KILLED: 6/2/87 CIRCUMSTANCE: Traffic accident NAME: James Pagliotti DIVISION: Metro DATE KILLED: 6/22/87 CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot by narcotics suspect NAME: James Beyea DIVISION: N. Hollywood DATE KILLED: 6/7/88 CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot by burglary suspect NAME: Daniel Pratt DIVISION: 77th DATE KILLED: 9/3/88 CIRCUMSTANCE: Gang-related drive-by shooting NAME: Derrick Connor DIVISION: Central DATE KILLED: 12/12/88 CIRCUMSTANCE: Police vehicle collision NAME: Manuel Gutierrez Jr. DIVISION: Central DATE KILLED: 12/12/88 CIRCUMSTANCE: Police vehicle collision NAME: David Lee Hofmeyer DIVISION: Central DATE KILLED: 12/12/88 CIRCUMSTANCE: Police vehicle collision NAME: Norman Eckles DIVISION: Administrative Narcotics DATE KILLED: 4/24/89* CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot while serving a search warrant, later died from chronic infections NAME: Russell Kuster DIVISION: Hollywood DATE KILLED: 10/9/90 CIRCUMSTANCE: Shot repeatedly in the chest by prison parolee *Officer Eckles was shot on Dec. 1, 1983. He died on April 24, 1989. His death was attributed to complications he developed after the 1983 shooting.

NOTE: Two other officers died of heart attacks while on duty during this period.

SOURCE: Los Angeles Police Department

Compiled by Times researcher Cecilia Rasmussen