Probe of Slaying by Officers to Be Widened : Inquiry: Activists assert before Police Commission that Darrell Harts was killed to prevent his testimony in a brutality case. More witnesses will be interviewed, officials say.

Los Angeles police officials pledged Tuesday to broaden their investigation into the fatal shooting last month of a Compton police recruit whose death has become the focus of widespread community anger.

The expansion of the investigation--to include interviews with additional witnesses--comes after a group of activists appeared Tuesday before the Police Commission and sharply questioned the official account of Darrell Harts’ death.

Police maintain that Harts was fatally wounded by two officers last month because he had just shot a dog and began firing at police.

But neighborhood activists contend that he was killed to keep him from testifying in an upcoming trial involving brutality allegations. Harts was expected to testify in court in August that he saw a Los Angeles police officer strike a man in the face, breaking his jaw and shattering 10 teeth.

“You realize that if there is no witness, there is no case,” Pauletta Oliver, spokeswoman for the Darrell Harts Justice Committee, told the police panel.

After listening to the group’s concerns, Chief Willie L. Williams made a rare gesture toward easing community anger over the shooting and agreed to discuss the case with members of Harts’ family.

Police have denied that the shooting was in any way related to Harts’ expected testimony in the lawsuit filed by Austin Shanks, a former professional football player who is suing the LAPD.

Lt. William Hall, the department’s chief investigator for officer-involved shootings, has called Harts’ death an “unfortunate situation,” but he could not explain why the victim--a police academy graduate who was soon to start work in Compton--would fire at officers.

At Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting, a group of about 20 supporters showed up wearing blue ribbons in Harts’ memory.

The group has held weekly vigils outside the LAPD’s Southeast Division station, demanding that criminal charges be filed against officers in the shooting.

Members claimed Tuesday that they have been harassed by police.

They said some supporters have been followed home by police after the vigils, creating fear in the community. They said numerous witnesses have not come forward because they fear reprisals.

Commission President Jesse A. Brewer, promising to check into the claims of harassment, urged the group to provide the department with names of any new witnesses. He promised they would not be harmed.

“This is a new day. We have a new administration and a new philosophy here in this department. We want to do what’s right and we want to be held accountable,” Brewer said.

Harts’ supporters said that attempts to contact Williams have been met with statements from his office that he is “too busy.”

Oliver said supporters hoped for sympathy from Williams because he, like Harts and most of the critics, is black. “You’re an African-American,” she said. “You’re someone we trust, someone we hope will massage the fracture, because there is a fracture in the community now.”

The chief told them to contact his staff “and I’ll do a follow-up.”