Gunman Masters, Injured Tagger Charged : Shooting: City attorney files misdemeanor weapons count against man who killed teen-ager, graffiti vandalism count against dead youth’s companion.

The city attorney filed misdemeanor gun-carrying charges Thursday against William A. Masters II, the Sun Valley man who became an urban folk hero to admirers and a racist vigilante to critics when he shot a teen-age tagger to death under a freeway bridge.

Masters upstaged the announcement by City Atty. James Hahn by crashing Hahn’s news conference, appearing suddenly in the doorway of an 18th floor conference room at City Hall East.

Hahn, who appeared shaken, asked aides: “How did he get in here? Did anyone check to see if he was carrying a gun?”

Masters told reporters he wasn’t, commenting “that would be foolish of me.” But he added that despite the charges against him he intends to continue carrying a gun “until all the criminals are locked in jail and there is no longer a threat to my life or any other citizen’s life.”

The city attorney also brought misdemeanor charges against David I. Hillo, one of the two men Masters shot. Hillo, 20, of North Hollywood, who suffered a minor wound in the buttocks, was charged with misdemeanor vandalism for the graffiti Masters found him painting, and with violating the terms of probation imposed after a previous graffiti conviction.

Masters shot Cesar Rene Arce, 18, of Arleta, to death and wounded Hillo shortly after 1 a.m. on Jan. 31 when Masters, out for a late-night stroll, came upon the two men painting graffiti on pillars supporting the Hollywood Freeway where it passes over Arleta Avenue in Sun Valley.

Masters said Arce and Hillo--who was carrying a screwdriver--tried to rob him and that he opened fire as they advanced on him in a menacing fashion.

The district attorney’s office earlier ruled that Masters was justified, under California law, in shooting Arce and Hillo in self-defense and refused to charge him with murder or any other felony. Similarly, the district attorney refused to charge Hillo with attempted robbery or assault, saying that because he and Masters were the only witnesses to the event, there would be no way to put together a reasonable case for the prosecution.

The case then went to the city attorney’s office for consideration of misdemeanor charges, while the debate over the shooting grew steadily more rancorous.

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Masters, a 35-year-old sometime actor with a history of fighting laws against carrying weapons, was widely interviewed. Admirers hailed him on radio talk shows as an upstanding citizen who defended himself from dangerous graffiti vandals, who they condemned as a plague.

But Masters’ reference to Arce and Hillo as “skinhead Mexicans” brought protests from Latinos, who accused him of racism and of shooting the two men needlessly. Others accused him of callousness for saying Arce’s grieving mother was responsible for her son’s death, on the grounds that Arce’s upbringing was to blame for his being a criminal.

Announcing the filing of misdemeanor charges--after weeks of public debate over justice, race and vigilantism--Hahn said all three men had broken the law that early morning, setting off a “chain of events that ended in tragedy.”

Masters was charged with carrying a concealed firearm, and carrying a loaded firearm without a permit, offenses that carry a possible penalty of 18 months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Hillo could face 178 days in jail for the previous vandalism conviction, as well as an additional six months in jail and $1,000 fine if convicted of the new vandalism charge.

Hahn said Hillo’s probation would have expired Jan. 6, about two weeks before the new tagging charge, except that Hillo had failed to pay restitution to the gas station owner, as ordered under the terms of probation in the earlier case. He said Hillo’s probation had been revoked at least once before.

Hahn said city prosecutors filed charges they believe can be proved independently, without testimony by either Masters or Hillo.

The city prosecutor added that Masters has approached his office and the district attorney about getting back his gun, a $149, .380 semiautomatic pistol.

The gun will be kept as evidence in the pending court case, Hahn said. If Masters is convicted, it will be destroyed.

Meanwhile, until Masters’ case is heard, there is nothing to legally prevent him from owning other guns, so long as he doesn’t carry them concealed, or carry them loaded into public places, Hahn said.

Hillo was ordered to appear in Van Nuys Municipal Court on March 14, and Masters was ordered to appear there two days later.

After Hahn’s announcement, Masters held his own impromptu news conference by the 18th floor elevators in City Hall. He said he wants to fight the charges but has only about $35 in his checking account.

Masters quoted at length from an 1885 U.S. Supreme Court decision he said made it the duty of every citizen to carry a gun to protect the public.

“It is not a choice, this is your duty. Your duty is to carry a firearm and to protect the public security,” Masters said. “ You are the reserve militia.”

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Asked if he wished Arce had lived, Masters replied: “It would be preferable, yeah, but I’d also have to face the fact that two of them would be testifying that I attacked them, rather than the other way around, and the strength of two against one would probably go against me. . . . I would probably end up going to jail.

“I did everything that I could at the scene to keep him alive . . . including risking the possibility of contracting AIDS by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation without the proper equipment . . . I think that is more than most people would have done.”

Attorney Luis Carrillo said he and several other members of the Mexican American Bar Assn. would represent Hillo, whom he advised not to talk to reporters.

Hahn “had to have charged Masters with the concealed weapon,” Carrillo said. “It’s unfortunate that he also charged David Hillo with vandalism, given that David Hillo was a victim, shot in the back.”

Carrillo said he has obtained a copy of a police report on the shooting that says a visibly shaken Masters told the first officers who arrived on the scene, “I shot him because he was spray-painting,” conflicting with Masters’ later account that he had fired in self-defense.

Carrillo said Masters’ “spontaneous” statement should have carried more weight than his later account.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond said, however, that Masters’ initial statement did not mean Masters did not feel threatened. He noted that Hillo confirmed much of Masters’ account.

“Hillo as much as conceded to the police that he could understand why Masters felt threatened,” Diamond said.

Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this story.