Robbery Suspect Charged in Death of Alleged Accomplice : Crime: Ventura County prosecutors to arraign Reseda man for murder as a result of a gunfight with police that erupted during the holdup of a Newbury Park market.

A robbery suspect who engaged Los Angeles police in a gunfight in Newbury Park last week was charged with murder Monday for his role in the shootout that killed his alleged accomplice, left him partially paralyzed and badly injured two LAPD detectives.

Ventura County investigators revealed Monday that one of the detectives may have been hit by a bullet fired by one of his own colleagues.

The bloody shootout occurred June 26.

Police said LAPD’s covert Special Investigations Section tailed two men into Ventura County, watched them hold up a liquor store at gunpoint, then returned fire as one suspect tried to shoot his way out of a police blockade.

Robert Wayne Cunningham, 31, of Reseda, faces one count of first-degree murder because he allegedly fired shots prompting the police gunfire that killed his accomplice, Daniel Joseph Soly, 26, said Ventura County prosecutor Richard Holmes.

“In a robbery, if you provoke by your actions a lethal response . . . and the lethal response kills your confederate, you’re guilty of first-degree murder,” said Holmes, who oversees major crimes prosecutions.

“There’s an old saying,” Holmes added. “ ‘He who takes the devil on board must take him to his destination.’ ”

Cunningham also faces robbery, burglary and conspiracy charges in the holdup of South West Liquor & Deli at gunpoint, Holmes said. In addition, he was charged with three counts of first-degree attempted murder because police said he fired at three members of the Special Investigations Section.

Bullets missed Detective James Harris, said Holmes, but hit Detectives Philip Wixon and Larry Winston.

Cunningham was charged with use of a firearm and inflicting great bodily injury only on Wixon.

However, Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Robertson said that Wixon’s partner, Winston, may have been hit in the abdomen by an LAPD bullet, not by Cunningham’s gunfire.

“Anything’s possible, and ballistically speaking, we don’t have a bullet recovered from that officer,” Robertson said of Winston. “We are doing all other ballistics comparisons and coinciding them with statements made by the officers. The final determination has not been made. It is a possibility.”

Other evidence shows that Soly may not have even used his gun before he was shot to death, Robertson said. A fully loaded six-shot revolver was found on him when Soly’s body was pulled from the shot-up Toyota Celica in which he and Cunningham tried to escape, Robertson said.

Los Angeles police investigators have reached no conclusions about Winston’s injuries, and are still looking into the shooting, said Lt. John Dunkin.

“I don’t know what it is that motivated the D.A. to file the charges he filed, and our shooting review has not been completed,” Dunkin said.

Wixon and Winston have been released from Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, officials said. Cunningham remains hospitalized.

“I can tell you that he is not in good condition,” said Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley, whose office will defend Cunningham in court.

Sources have said that a bullet lodged near Cunningham’s spine left him unable to fully move his legs, but Farley declined to describe his condition.

“We’re in the stage where we’re trying to see how much movement he can have,” she said.

Cunningham is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at 1:30 p.m. in Ventura County Municipal Court, Farley said, but the proceedings cannot take place unless he is well enough to attend.