EX-OFFICER TESTIFIES ABOUT SHOOTOUT.

Byline: Phillip W. Browne Daily News Staff Writer

A former police officer testified Tuesday how he fought for his life during a 1993 shootout with three men and how it led to their arrest on charges of robbing and murdering two San Fernando Valley women.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles Superior Court opened their death-penalty case against one-time Faith Baptist High School basketball star Etienne Moore, 24, and LaCedrick Johnson, 23, and Shashonee Solomon, 35, who are accused of the two murders that capped a violent 1993 crime spree.

Prosecutors called former Baldwin Park Police Officer Gregory Denels to the witness stand to recount the November 1993 gun battle at a Reseda liquor store. That investigation eventually linked the three men to the string of robbery-murders, prosecutors said.

``I was in a fight for my life. I just shot in the direction where the bullets were coming from,'' Denels explained, after giving testimony that he only saw a silhouette with a gun and couldn't positively identify the shooter.

``My training as a police officer, and for my life, was to shoot in the direction of where the bullets were coming from,'' he said.

Denels suffered two gunshot wounds during that melee. Moore, who was captured in the minutes after the shooting, accepted a plea bargain in the attempted murder case and served two years in prison. But now Moore, of Canoga Park, is accused of being the most violent player in the gang believed responsible for as many as 30 robberies in the San Fernando Valley.

The crime spree included the slaying of Laurie Myles, 37, who was shot to death Sept. 15, 1993 in her car. The North Hills woman was sitting in the car with her then 9-year-old son, waiting to pick up her teen-age daughter from a Bible study class in Northridge.

An assailant shot her as her son cowered in the seat next to her, even though she gave up her purse and briefcase. The shooting triggered community outrage and rewards offered for the shooter's capture.

Six weeks later, police found the body of Reseda resident Talin Kara Tarkhanian, 20, slumped over the wheel of her car near DeSoto Avenue and the Simi Valley Freeway. She had been shot in the head.

Prosecutors allege that Moore and Johnson killed the women during robberies. Solomon is believed to have ordered Tarkhanian's murder after she broke off a romantic relationship with the parolee.

The string of robberies ended with Denels' shooting. Denels tried to intervene in what he believed was a robbery at the Reseda liquor store when he was off duty. Eight months after the shootout, new detectives re-investigated the Myles and Tarkhanian shootings, which was the key to identifying Moore and linked the three suspects to the slayings.

Prosecutor Jan Maurizi said detectives re-examined the officer's shooting, and evidence recovered from the scene eventually linked Moore to the Myles and Tarkhanian shootings, as well as other members of the ring.