Officers in 1990 Shootout Won’t Face Civil Rights Charges

No civil rights charges will be filed against nine members of an elite Los Angeles police unit for fatally shooting three robbers and wounding a fourth as they fled a holdup, federal authorities announced Monday.

The U. S. attorney’s office said it had concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove the police had violated civil rights laws when they fired on the four men in 1990.

The announcement effectively ended a federal grand jury probe of the incident, which spawned years of civil litigation. It was welcomed by police, who have endured years of scrutiny over the matter and lost a 1992 civil suit in which a federal jury found the deaths to be wrongful and awarded more than $44,000 in punitive damages to the slain men’s survivors.

The nine SIS officers are Richard Spelman, James Tippings, Gary Strickland, Jerry Brooks, John Helms, Joe Callion, Warren Eggar, Richard Zierenberg and David Harrison.

The legal saga began on Feb. 12, 1990, as two dozen members of the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section surrounded a McDonald’s restaurant in Sunland, watched an armed theft unfold inside, and, without intervening, waited for the robbers to emerge. For weeks, the SIS had been tracking the men, who were suspects in a series of holdups at fast-food restaurants.

Police have always maintained that they wanted to arrest the men and were forced to open fire when the fleeing robbers aimed weapons at them. Killed were Herbert Burgos, 27, Jesus Arango, 25, and Javier Trevino, 21. The survivor, Alfredo Olivas, was convicted of robbery and sentenced to prison.

The slain robbers’ relatives sued the city and police, contending that the men had been shot unarmed. A jury awarded punitive damages, asking that the police officers pay the $44,000. After the Los Angeles City Council voted to indemnify the officers, Trevino’s daughter, Johanna, filed another suit that, in part, sought to make the council members liable.

But a federal judge dismissed that portion of the suit, and on Friday, a jury gave Johanna the minimum award of $1 for the loss of her father.