Lawsuit Accuses LAPD Unit of Stalking, Killing Gunman
A federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday accuses 13 members of a controversial Los Angeles Police Department unit of killing a man they had tailed and allowed to rob a liquor store in Newbury Park in June 1995.
The suit asks for damages and requests a federal injunction prohibiting the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section (SIS) from continuing its practice of following suspects, allowing them to commit crimes and “then to murder them.”
This is the most recent of several cases that Venice civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman has filed against SIS officers. In 1992, he convinced a federal jury to award damages against some of the same officers involved in the incident.
According to Wednesday’s suit, Daniel Soly was killed by the officers in a gun battle after he and Robert Cunningham robbed a liquor store. Cunningham was wounded in the incident and faces charges of robbery and attempted murder in Ventura County. The new suit was filed on behalf of Soly’s parents, Armand and Betty Soly.
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