Family of Slain Man Sues Police : Courts: Civil rights filing alleges that undercover officers watched as he was fatally shot outside a North Hills McDonald’s, which is also named as a defendant.

A Van Nuys family alleges in a civil rights lawsuit filed this week that Los Angeles police officers watched a gunman shoot their son outside a North Hills restaurant, then arrested the victim as he lay wounded--blocking medical treatment so that he bled to death.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the city, former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, the Los Angeles Police Department and McDonald’s restaurants seeks $5 million in punitive damages, said Gary Faulkes, an attorney for the family.

Police and city officials and McDonald’s representatives declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday. At the time of the incident, police said it appeared to be a gang shooting.

Faulkes is representing plaintiffs in three separate shootings at the same McDonald’s, two of which ended in death. Two of the victims were brothers.

The suit filed Tuesday was on behalf of the family of Ramon Carmona, 21, of Van Nuys, who was leaving the McDonald’s on Sepulveda Boulevard when he was shot in the chest by an unknown assailant Nov. 6, Faulkes said.

The suit alleges that at least three undercover officers had the gunman under surveillance, but did nothing to stop him from shooting Carmona.

The suit alleges that the officers violated Carmona’s civil rights by unlawfully arresting him after he had been shot, ignoring his pleas for medical attention and refusing to call an ambulance.

Instead, the officers dragged Carmona from the car of a friend who tried to drive him to a hospital and detained Carmona for about 40 minutes on the pavement, Faulkes said. An ambulance was called by a neighbor who witnessed the event, Faulkes said, but Carmona “had lost so much blood that by the time he got to the hospital he was dead.”

At the time of the shooting, police said Carmona was standing with friends at Sepulveda and Roscoe boulevards when a Mercury Cougar pulled up and one of its occupants fired into the crowd and struck Carmona. Police identified Carmona as a gang member, saying his assailant was believed to be from a rival gang.

Faulkes said he plans to employ some of the same arguments used by attorney Stephen Yagman, who won a civil rights lawsuit against the Police Department on behalf of the families of three robbers killed by the department’s Special Investigations Section.

Yagman argued that the 19-member surveillance unit followed the suspects and did not prevent them from committing crimes, waiting until they had committed more serious offenses before arresting them.

A Police Department spokesman said he could not comment on whether the officers in the Carmona shooting were also SIS members because the case is in litigation.

Faulkes said he is also representing the family of Javier Luna, 18, who was fatally shot two days after Carmona at the same McDonald’s.

Faulkes said he plans to file a $1-million suit this week and that McDonald’s and E & Z Market will be named as defendants for allegedly failing to provide adequate security.

The same McDonald’s was named as the sole defendant in a $250,000 lawsuit filed last week by Javier’s brother, Hector Luna, who was shot in the leg Sept. 14 while dining at the restaurant, Faulkes said.