4 Lawsuits Over Police Actions Settled : LAPD: Council agrees to pay a total of $1.6 million. One incident involves the slaying of a suspect by a member of the Special Investigations Section.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved $1.6 million in settlements of four lawsuits alleging police misconduct, including one brought by the family of a man fatally shot in the back by a member of the LAPD’s controversial Special Investigations Section.

The city will pay $600,000 to the family of William Joseph Bachwich III, who was killed in 1986 when, according to police, a veteran of the SIS unit accidentally fired his shotgun while trying to arrest Bachwich.

Bachwich, a 25-year-old robbery suspect, was shot by Detective Gary Strickland. The detective was on an SIS team involved in a 1990 shooting outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Sunland that resulted in a $44,042 jury award paid earlier this year by the city. The shooting left three suspected robbers dead and a fourth wounded.

Strickland is no longer on the force, but a police spokesman could not immediately say whether he retired or faced disciplinary actions for either shooting.

The SIS unit was the subject of a 1988 Times investigation that found its officers often followed violent criminals but did not take advantage of opportunities to arrest them until after robberies or burglaries occurred--in many cases leaving victims terrorized or injured.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said Thursday that he will meet with Police Chief Willie L. Williams today and ask him to review the operations of SIS, among other things.

In the case settled this week, Strickland was holding Bachwich to the ground with a shotgun to his back, according to a city attorney’s report. A flashlight was attached to the gun.

“When Bachwich began moving his right hand from underneath his chest, Strickland attempted to turn on the flashlight and accidentally moved his trigger finger, firing one round into the back of Bachwich,” the report said.

According to police, Strickland said at the time of the incident that he saw a black object in the suspect’s hand that he thought was a weapon. The black object turned out to be a glove.

The council also voted to pay:

* A $577,374 settlement to James Boulware, who was shot in the face in 1990 by police during an investigation of complaints of trespassers in a vacant house. The officer said he heard a sound in a room and fired his gun when he opened a door and saw what he thought was a wooden spear thrust at him, according to the city attorney’s report.

Boulware testified in court that he was having sex with a prostitute and “does not remember anything else.” The prostitute testified that the plaintiff grabbed a broom to defend them from the “invader” on the other side of the bedroom door.

* A $450,000 award to Michael Carrington, a former bartender who was left a quadriplegic after he was thrown from a motorcycle in a 1986 traffic accident. He alleged that a police officer “lifted him off the pavement, took his wallet from his pocket and threw him back onto the street surface,” aggravating his injuries, according to the city attorney’s report.

Officers denied touching Carrington, but two witnesses were willing to testify that an officer lifted and moved the plaintiff and removed his wallet, the report said.

* A $30,000 payment to Tracy Ann Reynaud, who alleged that officers “kicked in her door, ransacked her apartment, brutally handcuffed her and used vulgar and racist language” during a 1989 search for a robbery suspect.