FBI to Probe Police Slayings

The FBI launched an investigation Monday into the fatal shooting of two robbery suspects by the Los Angeles Police Department’s controversial Special Investigations Section.

Earlier in the day, a preliminary autopsy report found that the two men were shot in the back.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael J. Gennaco said he asked for the federal probe into Saturday’s shooting to determine whether the officers violated the suspects’ civil rights or used excessive force. His office already is investigating other shootings by the squad.

The dead men, Jose Rafael Figueroa, 24, of Van Nuys, and Mario Guerrero, 23, whose address was unknown, died of shotgun wounds outside a Reseda home after police followed their Lincoln Town Car from a travel agency holdup in Granada Hills.

On Saturday, police said one of the men was reaching for his waistband and turning toward detectives when he was shot. Police said the other man was reaching for his waistband as he crawled out of the passenger-side window of the car.

A handgun that had not been fired was found on the front seat of the car, and authorities acknowledged that neither of the dead men had a gun on him.

The coroner’s findings were certain to add to the debate over the events that led to the shooting.

The LAPD spokesman said the department will cooperate fully with the federal probe. Meanwhile, the LAPD is conducting its own investigation into the shooting.

Responding to the coroner’s preliminary findings, Cmdr. David J. Kalish said the fact that the two men were shot in the back did not automatically make it an improper shooting.

“Regardless of where the suspects were hit, it does not mean the suspects were not a threat,� Kalish said.

“We know that they had just committed an armed robbery where it had been reported that two of the suspects were armed,� he said. “This group was suspected of numerous other armed robberies at the time they were attempting to flee.�

At the coroner’s office, operations chief Craig Harvey said each of the dead men had a single shotgun wound.

“In Figueroa’s case, the wound is in the lower left quadrant of the back,� Harvey said. “Information on the path of the bullet is not available. There is no exit wound on Figueroa’s body.

“In Guerrero’s case, the wound is in the upper left quadrant of the back and the neck,� he said, adding that information on the injury path was not available and that there was no exit wound.

The coroner’s spokesman said he had no further information on the death of the suspects at the scene.

Harvey said there are many possible explanations for the location of the shotgun wounds, including the suspects’ own movements before police fired. Until the coroner’s investigation is completed in three or four weeks, the exact circumstances of the shooting will not be known, he said.

“The actions of the person immediately prior to being shot have a bearing on where the wounds are on the body,� Harvey said. “If the person was dodging away, turning away or trying to conceal their movements, it would have a bearing on the position of the wounds on the body.�

Police said the two dead men and seven other suspects arrested Saturday were connected to at least 25 travel agency robberies since January, many of them in the San Fernando Valley. The ring stole blank airline tickets in bold, daylight holdups.

Officers with the Special Investigations Section had been following the suspects for three weeks, police said.

On Friday, SIS officers watched as members of the ring drove to four travel agencies to case them. On Saturday, surveillance officers tracked them to Flymoon Travel Service on Chatsworth Street in Granada Hills.

Two suspects went inside the agency--located in a strip mall and not visible from the street--and robbed it, with a customer and its owner inside. The surveillance officers learned about the robbery only after the suspects left, police said.

SIS officers followed the suspects to a house in the 19400 block of Hatton Street, where they pinned their car in a driveway with unmarked police vehicles and drew their weapons.

Police said the men did not comply with orders to surrender. Police said Dets. Richard Spellman, Dean Gizzy, Lawrence Winston and Rodney Rodriguez were involved in the shooting.

Arrested were Oskaldo Arevalo, 34; Jaime Rozo, 26; Felipe Arevalo, 41; and Luz Martinez, 21, all of Reseda. Also arrested were Manuel Echeverria, 34, of Van Nuys; Ignacio Vega, 25, of Panorama City; and Herman Segura, 42, of Encino.

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 the unit’s formation 34 years ago, SIS detectives have confronted hundreds of armed suspects, engaged in more than 50 gun battles, killed at least 34 suspects and wounded dozens of others.

In the process, the unit has captured a who’s who of Los Angeles criminals, including the Alphabet Bomber, the Freeway Strangler and Ennis Cosby’s murderer. Army Delta Force and the Navy SEALs commando groups have been trained under SIS tutelage.

Kalish emphasized that the suspects the officers were pursuing presented obvious dangers.

“They were noncooperative and the officers believed their lives were in danger,� said Kalish, who said the LAPD investigation into the suspects and the police is in its “preliminary� phase.