Victims’ Suit Targets Tactics of Police Unit in ’90 Killings

Members of a controversial Los Angeles police squad involved in a 1990 shooting that left three men dead after a Sunland robbery were called “assassins with badges” Thursday by an attorney representing the families of the dead men in a civil rights lawsuit.

Attorney Stephen Yagman made the allegation during opening statements of a U.S. District Court trial that will focus on the tactics of the Police Department’s Special Investigations Section, a 19-member surveillance unit that targets suspects in serious crimes.

The families of the three men killed in the Feb. 12, 1990, shooting and a fourth man who was shot but survived contend that the SIS is a “death squad” that follows suspects, allows them to commit crimes and then frequently shoots them when officers move in to make arrests.

“What they do is attempt to terminate the existence of the people they are following,” Yagman told the 10 jurors hearing the case. “Terminate with extreme prejudice--with death.”

Deputy City Atty. Don Vincent countered that evidence would show the officers acted properly during the shooting and that the SIS is a valuable and legitimate police tool.

“This is a necessary organization that most police departments have,” Vincent said. “It is even more important in Los Angeles, a city of 365 square miles . . . where the criminals are just as mobile as the police.”

The trial before Judge J. Spencer Letts is expected to last at least two more weeks. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages in the suit, which names members of the SIS, Chief Daryl F. Gates, Mayor Tom Bradley, the Police Commission and all former commissioners and chiefs during the 25-year existence of the SIS.

The shooting in front of a McDonald’s restaurant on Foothill Boulevard occurred at the end of a lengthy investigation into a series of restaurant robberies. Police said that in late 1989 investigators identified possible suspects--Jesus Arango, 25, and Herbert Burgos, 37, both of Venice, and Juan Bahena, 20, and Alfredo Olivas, 21, both of Hollywood.

SIS officers followed the four intermittently for three months before they watched them break into the McDonald’s where only manager Robbin L. Cox was working after closing for the night.

Police later explained that they could not make arrests before the robbery because the four men moved too quickly and were too spread apart around the restaurant. After they tied, gagged and blindfolded Cox, the four left the restaurant with $14,000 from its safe.

When all four were seated inside a getaway car, SIS officers moved in on foot and in cars. Police said two of the men pointed guns at the officers, who opened fire, killing three and wounding Olivas in the stomach. Police said they recovered three pellet guns that resembled real pistols.

Whether the men in the car were armed at the time will be at issue in the trial. Yagman said the three dead men had no weapons and were shot in the back.

Olivas, the first witness to testify, said the men stored their weapons in the trunk of the car before getting in the vehicle.

A few seconds after the men were in the car, the shooting started, said Olivas, who is serving a 17-year prison term for the string of robberies. He said police did not identify themselves before opening fire.

“I was terrified because I didn’t know what was happening,” he said.

Olivas’ testimony sharply conflicts with the opening statement of Vincent, who said two of the men drew the police fire when they pointed their weapons at the officers.

“Officers have a right to self-defense,” Vincent said. “They don’t have to wait for someone to shoot them.”

Olivas’ testimony will continue today with Vincent--who called the convicted robber an “urban terrorist”--asking questions.

Yagman said he intends to call all the officers involved in the shooting to testify, as well as Bradley. During his opening statement, Yagman said Bradley “winks and nods” at problems within the department.

Bradley, Gates and police commissioners acquiesce to problems of excessive force and racism, allowing an environment where a “shadowy” unit such as the SIS has been allowed to operate for years with little scrutiny, Yagman said.

“It is not clear who runs the Police Department,” Yagman told the jurors. “The evidence will show you have a police department that is out of control.”

Bradley, a former police officer, in depositions for the suit said he did not even know SIS existed until its operations were detailed in The Times in 1988, Yagman said.

Vincent said Yagman’s contention of mismanagement was not true. He said tactics used by SIS officers are carefully planned and have the safety of bystanders and officers as a top priority.