Michael Connelly - Crime Beat - A Decade Of Covering Cops And Killers

The gunfire early Monday echoed throughout the commercial and residential area where apartment buildings sit alongside restaurants, convenience stores and small service shops.

“I woke up hearing many, many shots,” said Alejandro Medina, whose corner apartment overlooks the shooting area. “I got up to see and then there were more shots. I hit the floor.”

Although SIS officers had watched at least one of the men off and on since the beginning of the year, Hall said the suspects were not seen breaking any laws before they forced their way into the McDonald’s at 7950 Foothill Boulevard.

“At the times the surveillance has been on the suspects, [police] saw no crimes,” Hall said. “To stop them they needed a reason. That had not occurred. Once [the suspects] went up to the restaurant, maybe they crossed that threshold.”

Hall said the officers, however, then decided they did not want to risk the safety of the restaurant manager by attempting to burst into the McDonald’s and arrest the robbers.

“The decision was made that, since there never had been any injuries involved in any of these robberies, rather than try to force entry into the building, they would wait and let the suspects exit,” Hall said.

The names of the three dead men were not released Monday. The wounded man was identified as Alfredo Olivas, 19, of Hollywood. He was in serious condition, suffering from two shotgun wounds, at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. Police said that when he recovers, Olivas will be arrested on a murder charge because, under California law, he can be held responsible for any deaths that occur during a crime he allegedly committed.

Police began their investigation of the suspects after the robbery of a McDonald’s in downtown Los Angeles in September, Hall said. Because detectives and McDonald’s security officials believed the robbers had knowledge of how the restaurant operated, several employees were questioned and given lie-detector tests.

One employee was fired after failing the polygraph examination but there was no evidence to arrest him, police said. The downtown robbery was similar to at least six others – five at McDonald’s restaurants and one at a Carl’s Jr. – in Los Angeles since August, police said. In each case, the robbers had knowledge of the business’s operations and forced a lone manager at gunpoint to open a safe after hours, police said.

SIS officers began to follow the former employee in early January and, on Sunday night, the officers watched as he met with three other men in Venice and drove with them to Sunland in a bronze Thunderbird belonging to one of the men, police said.

The four men arrived at the McDonald’s as it was closing at midnight and watched it from the Thunder-bird parked across the street, police said. At 1:36 a.m. when only night manager Robin Cox, 24, was still inside, three of the suspects got out of the Thunderbird and approached the restaurant.

Hall said one man remained in front while two others attempted to break in a rear door. Cox heard the break-in attempt and called police. Patrol units were not dispatched, however, because SIS officers were watching the restaurant.

Hall said the officers held back on arresting the suspects because the suspects were too spread out. As the officers watched, the two suspects at the rear of the restaurant moved to a side door and forced their way into the McDonald’s.

All four suspects then entered the restaurant. Cox was tied up and threatened at gunpoint until she opened the restaurant’s safe. Several thousand dollars was taken, police said.

The suspects came out of the restaurant half an hour later and walked across the street to the Thunderbird. After they were in the car, four unmarked cars containing eight officers pulled up from behind and one officer ran up on foot.

Hall said the officers identified themselves and were wearing clearly marked “raid” jackets that said “police” on the front and back.

“When they approached the vehicle they saw one of the suspects with a handgun point it toward their direction,” Hall said. “One of the officers said, ‘Watch out, they’ve got a gun.’

“At that time we had several officers fire into the vehicle. The passenger in the front exited and fled into an open field. He was carrying a handgun and several officers fired at him. All the shots were fired in just a few seconds.”

Hall said that after the firing stopped, two officers approached the car and fired four more shots into it when they saw “two of the suspects were moving around, reaching down to a floorboard where a gun was.”

A total of 23shotgun blasts and 12shots from 45-caliber handguns were fired by police at the suspected robbers, Hall said.

Several residents in the area said they were awakened by the gunfire and shouts of the police officers.

“My husband yelled to me to call the police,” said Ronda Caracci, whose apartment also offers a view of the shooting area. “I looked out the window and said, ‘Hey, it is the police.’”

Courts: Case will focus on tactics of Special Investigations Officers who fatally shot three robbers.

January 10, 1992

Members of a controversial Los Angeles police squad who fatally shot three men after a 1990 robbery in Sunland were called “assassins with badges” Thursday by an attorney representing the families of the dead men in a civil rights lawsuit.

Attorney Stephen Yagman made the allegation during opening statements in a U.S. District Court trial that will focus on the tactics of the police department’s Special Investigations Section, a 19-member surveillance unit that targets suspects in serious crimes.

The families of the three men killed in the Feb. 12, 1990, shooting, along with a fourth robber who was shot but survived, charge that the SIS is a “death squad” that follows suspects, allows them to commit crimes and then frequently shoots them when officers move in to make arrests.

“What they do is attempt to terminate the existence of the people they are following,” Yagman told the 10 jurors hearing the case.

Deputy City Atty. Don Vincent countered that the officers acted properly and that the SIS is a valuable police tool. “This is a necessary organization that most police departments have,” he said. “It is even more important in Los Angeles, a city of 365 square miles… where the criminals are just as mobile as the police.”

The trial before Judge J. Spencer Letts is expected to last at least two weeks. The suit names members of the SIS, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, Mayor Tom Bradley, the Police Commission and all former commissioners and chiefs during the unit’s 25-year existence. Yagman says officials have allowed an environment in which a “shadowy” unit such as the SIS can operate. The shooting in front of a McDonald’s restaurant on Foothill Boulevard occurred after a lengthy investigation into a series of restaurant robberies. Police said that in late 1989 investigators identified the suspects – Jesus Arango, 25, and Herbert Burgos, 37, of Venice and Juan Bahena, 20, and Alfredo Olivas, 21, both of Hollywood.

SIS officers followed the four intermittently for three months before they watched them break into the McDonald’s where manager Robin L. Cox was working alone after closing for the night.

After they tied up, gagged and blindfolded Cox, the robbers left the restaurant with $14,000from its safe.

When all four were seated in their getaway car, SIS officers moved in on foot and in cars. Police said two of the men pointed guns at the officers, who opened fire, killing three and wounding Olivas in the stomach. Police said they recovered three pellet guns that resembled pistols.