CITY SUIT IN SHOOTOUT BACKED.

Byline: Stacy Finz Daily News Staff Writer

Business owners rallied Friday in support of a lawsuit filed by the city of Los Angeles against the estate of a bank robber who died in a gunfight with police in February.

Emil Matasareanu was one of two robbers who held police at bay with a machine gun, injuring 11 officers and six civilians before he died in a spectacular shootout in a residential neighborhood.

Now, the city of Los Angeles wants his estate to pay for injuries he caused police and civilians and damage caused to local property. The lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

``What recourse do we have?'' asked Jorge Montes, a dentist, during a news conference. His mini-van was demolished and his office looked like a war zone after the gunbattle, he said. ``We have no one to turn to. The city says it will pay, but that will take time.''

Montes helped treat officers who took refuge in his office.

Assistant Los Angeles City Attorney Don Vincent said the city is suing to recoup the cost of deploying police and firefighters, treating injured officers and repairing property.

``We're talking about a sizable amount of money,'' Vincent said. ``This could could come to more than $1 million.''

Merchants in the Valley Plaza shopping center, located across Laurel Canyon Boulevard from the bank, also spoke out against a civil-rights lawsuit filed in April on behalf of Matasareanu's two children. In that case, attorney Stephen Yagman seeks damages and claims the police let Matasareanu bleed to death without getting him help.

Yagman said the city's counterclaim is unfounded.

``I don't know of any legal basis where a city can sue on the behalf of individuals,'' he said.

The merchants called the Matasareanus' lawsuit frivolous and praised the city's efforts to thwart it with the counterclaim.

Elvira Gutierrez, who owns a beauty salon in the center, said the shootout terrified her clients and as a result business has dwindled.

``The shooting gave the area a bad reputation,'' Gutierrez said while washing the hair of her only client that morning. ``I'm with the city. And you can tell the lawyer (for the Matasareanus) to go rob another state.''

Michael Heron, an innocent bystander who was shot six times during the shootout, couldn't attend the news conference, but in a letter he explained how his life had been changed forever by robbers Matasareanu and Larry Phillips Jr., who also died during the incident.

``What is really appalling is the fact that this family would even think of filing a lawsuit,'' he wrote. ``These two people broke the law, robbed a bank and used automatic weapons on public streets.''