Efforts to Save Bank Robber Described

A retired police detective testified Tuesday that he did everything humanly possible to get medical help for a wounded bank robbery suspect, including unleashing a string of expletives at an ambulance attendant who left the scene.

James Vojtecky denied charges that he told the ambulance attendant to “get the . . . out of here” as armed robbery suspect Emil Matasareanu lay bleeding on the street after the 1997 North Hollywood shootout.

Vojtecky’s testimony appeared to conflict with that of emergency medical technician Alan R. Skier, who testified earlier in the federal civil rights case that he was ordered out of the area by a plainclothes officer.

Skier said the officer told him to get out because he was in a dangerous “kill zone.” He did not identify Vojtecky as that officer, but on the witness stand Tuesday, Vojtecky acknowledged having had a heated confrontation with Skier.

Vojtecky, who retired after 27 years on the force, gave a vastly different account, however.

He said he became distressed when he noticed the Fire Department ambulance crew about to leave the scene with two wounded victims, but not Matasareanu.

He said he ordered an ambulance attendant, whom he now believes was Skier, to summon another ambulance, but was told that none was available.

He said he emphatically repeated his demand that the attendant get another ambulance, even if he had to get one from as far away as the harbor.

The 30-year-old Matasareanu bled to death by the time help arrived nearly an hour later. He had been shot 29 times.

Vojtecky, along with now-retired Police Officer John Futrell, 50, and the city are defendants in the Los Angeles federal court suit brought on behalf of Matasareanu’s two surviving children. The plaintiffs contend that the two officers deliberately withheld medical care from Matasareanu, causing his death.

Matasareanu and his partner, Larry E. Philips, 26, died after a 44-minute gun battle with police after they botched a robbery at a Bank of America branch Feb. 28, 1997. Clad in full body armor and wielding military assault rifles, the two gunmen wounded 17 police officers and bystanders during a running exchange that was shown on live television.

Vojtecky, who headed the burglary detail at the Police Department’s Foothill Division, said he raced to the crime scene after hearing a radio call that officers were wounded and under fire.

He and other police officers pursued Matasareanu down a side street where the wounded suspect was captured and placed in handcuffs. Taking control of the scene, Vojtecky said he immediately ordered that an ambulance be called.

Skier’s ambulance arrived about 10 minutes later and picked up a wounded civilian and an injured police officer.

“I wanted all the wounded out of the area,” Vojtecky related. “I assumed they were going to take [Matasareanu].”

The former detective said he wanted to evacuate the area because police radio broadcasts warned of other gunmen. As long as any wounded remained, he said, he could not leave.

Vojtecky also disputed testimony by a neighbor that Matasareanu cried out, “Help me! Help me!” as he lay bleeding in the street. Vojtecky said he was close enough to Matasareanu to have heard any such plea except for about 10 minutes when he conducted a backyard search for other suspects.

Quite the opposite, the former officer said, Matasareanu tried to hasten his own death by rolling on the ground to exacerbate his bleeding. Twice, he said, Matasareanu asked him to finish him off with a bullet to the head.

“ ‘Pal’, I told him, ‘You’re not dying on my watch,’ ” Vojtecky said.