FBI Investigation Shuts Road

A quarter-mile stretch of Foothill Boulevard in Sunland was briefly closed early Saturday while the FBI continued its investigation into the killing of three robbers at a McDonald’s restaurant by a controversial Los Angeles Police Department squad, authorities said.

FBI spokesman Tyrone Miller said the street in front of the restaurant at 7950 Foothill Blvd. was closed so the agency could conduct a civil rights investigation into the Jan. 12, 1990, shooting by the Special Investigations Section of the Police Department.

Miller refused to say whether the FBI had re-enacted the incident and then videotaped it, as was reported by witnesses who asked not to be identified.

The FBI’s inquiry came to light in January during a civil suit in federal court brought by the families of the three men who were killed and the one robber who survived the shooting. The jury found former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and nine officers liable in the incident, and assessed a $44,042 damage award against them.

The plaintiffs contended that the department’s controversial SIS is a “death squad” and that its officers used excessive force when they opened fire on the robbers.