2 Sought in Shoot-Out Are Dead : Crime: Suspects wanted in attempted burglary in Downey died in unrelated incidents. One was stabbed to death, the other gunned down in a drive-by.

By LOUIS SAHAGUN

Nov. 22, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Two men suspected of taking part in a gun battle with police last month at a Downey discount store--a fierce shoot-out that left two officers and one would-be robber wounded and prompted a massive manhunt--have been killed in unrelated incidents, authorities said Wednesday.

A man identified by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman as Dale English, 39, of Los Angeles was fatally wounded in an Oct. 14 drive-by incident in Compton. Richard Edward Johnson, 29, was stabbed to death with a pocketknife Oct. 23 during an argument over a girlfriend in Gardena, Downey Police Capt. Dennis Chelstrom said.

Investigators said that Johnson was believed to have been one of the triggermen who exchanged 60 rounds with four police officers after at least six masked robbers were thwarted by Downey police at the PACE Membership Warehouse on Oct. 9.

English allegedly drove a getaway van found later splattered with blood.

Neither Johnson nor English had been arrested or indicted in connection with the warehouse incident, but investigators had become suspicious of the men based on anonymous tips and evidence found at the scene and in searches.

Investigators said there is no reason to believe the suspects’ deaths were related to the warehouse incident, a crime that, though foiled, appeared to be the work of a well-equipped, highly sophisticated team.

Several thousand dollars were dropped by the robbers during the getaway, along with semiautomatic weapons, walkie-talkies and flak jackets. Eighteen PACE employees who were held at gunpoint during the crime escaped unharmed.

No arrests have been made in the deaths of Johnson or English. Investigators said they are searching for the assailants and for at least three other robbery suspects.

Anonymous tips had suggested to investigators that English drove the getaway van. Law officers had made no attempt to arrest him before he was shot down in Compton.

Sheriff’s spokesman Rafael Estrada said English was standing with a group of men on a Compton street corner when “a gunman fired several rounds at them from a passing vehicle.”

“He was hit in the back,” Estrada said. “He didn’t die until Oct. 20 at Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center.”

Estrada said “the shooting does not appear to be gang-related and there are no suspects in custody.”

Johnson had been considered a prime suspect because of information provided by anonymous telephone calls and a tipster, Chelstrom said.

Johnson was believed wounded in the gunfight with police. Interest in him as a suspect increased when investigators determined that his blood type matched that of samples taken from the getaway van and from a bloody T-shirt and blood-soaked compress found later, said Downey Police Capt. Chelstrom.

“Before we could locate him we were told by Gardena police that he had been killed in an unrelated incident Oct. 23,” Chelstrom said. “We went to the autopsy the next morning at the Los Angeles County morgue and our detectives were advised that he had a through and through bullet hole in his right side, just above the hip.”

Police believed they had shot and wounded one of the fleeing robbers, but did not know where he had been struck. During the manhunt, hospitals were notified to watch for someone seeking treatment for a bullet wound. Johnson, investigators believe, never sought care from a doctor.

“Johnson was trained as a medical technician while he was in prison and he apparently treated himself,” Chelstrom said.

Johnson was killed while visiting a girlfriend in Gardena, said Gardena Police Detective John Davila. “An old boyfriend arrived with three other men,” he said. “A fight ensued.”

In the fight, Johnson was stabbed several times in the chest, Davila said.

“We’re talking about a lot of stab wounds with a large . . . pocketknife,” Davila said. “After being stabbed, he fled on foot to the end of the block, where he collapsed on the street.”

Johnson died of his wounds at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, authorities said.

Chelstrom said the two wounded officers--Randy Ewing, 36, who was shot four times in the lower back, and Joel Willis, 22, who was shot once in his leg--were at home recuperating.

“Eventually, they’ll be back at work,” Chelstrom said.

In a related development, a criminal complaint was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Municipal Court against a third suspect, Samuel Tim Fountain, 33, of Compton. Fountain, a prison parolee, was captured on the day of the robbery in nearby bushes.

Filed against Fountain were three counts of attempted murder, three counts of robbery, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one county of burglary and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. Fountain was paroled in May after serving time in Folsom for manslaughter, authorities said. He has been returned to state prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Schirn said that if convicted on all counts, Fountain would face life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.