LAPD Officers Kill 2, Arrest 7 Suspected in Robbery

Officers from LAPD’s Special Investigations Section, who had been tailing a group of robbery suspects for three weeks, shot and killed two of them Saturday after the holdup of a Granada Hills travel agency, police said.

The dead men--and seven other people who were arrested Saturday--are all considered suspects in at least 25 travel agency robberies since January, police said. The two men were shot when they ignored instructions and reached into the waistbands of their pants after they had fled to a home in Reseda, police said.

Neither man fired a shot at officers, said LAPD spokeswoman Lt. Sharyn Buck. The only weapon police said they found was a Tec 9 semiautomatic pistol on the front seat of the suspects’ car.

Coroner’s officials did not release the names of the two men, who died at the scene. Those arrested included one woman, police said.

The SIS serves as the investigative team that detectives turn to when they believe they have identified a criminal suspect but lack the evidence to file charges.

Since its formation 34 years ago, SIS--called the “Death Squad” by its critics--has confronted hundreds of armed suspects, fought in more than 50 gun battles, killed at least 34 suspects and wounded dozens of others.

SIS detectives have captured a who’s who of Los Angeles criminals, including the Alphabet Bomber, the Freeway Strangler and Ennis Cosby’s murderer. Delta Force and the Navy SEALs military commando groups have been trained by the SIS in surveillance.

On Friday, SIS officers shadowed some of the robbery suspects as they allegedly cased four travel agencies, police sources said.

The SIS officers continued their surveillance on Saturday, and police said they followed four of the men to Fly Moon Travel Service at 17050 Chatsworth St. in Granada Hills.

The men arrived at the travel agency about 9:20 a.m. in two vehicles--a sport utility vehicle and a Lincoln Town Car, police said.

Two of the suspects went inside the agency, which is located in a shopping center and not visible from the street, and returned to their vehicle moments later, police said.

*

The two other suspects then went inside the building. After they left, one of the surveillance officers ran into the travel agency and was told that a robbery had taken place, police said. Police declined to say what was taken but said that the agency, employees and customers were robbed.

Police said they did not intend to let the suspects rob the agency or put lives at risk. Judging by what they had seen of the suspects’ behavior Friday as they followed them, police said, they believed the men were only checking out the travel agency.

Even before they learned from their colleague what had happened inside the agency, police began following both vehicles.

Officers stopped two of the men and arrested them, Buck said.

The SIS officers following the other two suspects in the Lincoln had hoped to stage a maneuver called “jamming,” in which they block off a suspect’s vehicle with their own. But the Lincoln was moving erratically through heavy traffic, switching in and out of lanes, police said.

*

The officers waited until the suspects pulled into the driveway of a house at 19400 Hatton St. in Reseda, then pinned their car.

Police said the officers repeatedly ordered the suspects to raise their hands.

The driver of the Lincoln got out and raised his hands for a moment, police said, but then reached for his waistband. Police said they again ordered the man to raise his hands and surrender. When he did not comply, police said, he was shot multiple times as he turned toward the detectives.

At about the same time, the passenger in the vehicle was shot as he was crawling out through the front window and reached for his waistband, police said.

SIS Dets. Richard Spellman, Dean Gizzy, Lawrence Winston and Rodney Rodriguez “were involved in the shooting,” Buck said.

Rodriguez was one of the detectives involved in a fatal shooting of three robbery suspects on Feb. 25, 1997. Winston and Spellman were named as defendants in a 1996 federal civil rights lawsuit accusing them of trying to kill a man they had tailed and allowed to rob a liquor store in Newbury Park in 1995. They deny those allegations, and the case is sill pending in federal court.

After the Saturday shooting in the driveway, three suspects ran out of the house and into a neighbor’s yard, police said.

The suspects were stopped by Los Angeles firefighters taking a lunch break behind a shopping center on nearby Keswick Street who thought their activities were suspicious, said Brian Humphrey, Fire Department spokesman. The firefighters held the suspects until police arrived.

Police later found two other suspects hiding inside a shed in a neighbor’s backyard.

Those arrested and booked on suspicion of robbery are: Oskaldo Arevalo, 34; Jaime Rozo, 26; Felipe Arevalo, 41; and Luz Martinez, 21, all of Reseda; Manuel Echeverria, 34, of Van Nuys; Ignacio Vega, 25, of Panorama City; and Herman Segura, 42 of Encino.