North Hollywood shootout

• 1. Introduction

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  The North Hollywood shootout began at 9:16 on the morning of the 28th of February 1997, when Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu walked into a Bank of America branch in Los Angeles carrying rifles. Both men wore body armor. Before they went inside, they set the alarms on their watches for eight minutes. That was the time they believed police would need to arrive after an alarm. Phillips had arrived at the number by listening to police transmissions on a radio scanner. By the time the morning ended, both robbers were dead and nearly 2,000 rounds of ammunition had been fired in the streets around the bank. Who were these two men, and what had they already done? Why did officers carrying ordinary pistols and shotguns struggle to stop them? And how did one morning change the way American police arm their patrol officers?

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• 2. The High Incident Bandits

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  Gold's Gym in Venice, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, is where Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu first met in 1989. They shared an interest in weightlifting, bodybuilding and firearms. Both were big men. Phillips stood 6 feet tall and weighed 230 pounds, while Mătăsăreanu stood 6 feet 3 inches and weighed 270 pounds.

  Phillips already had a record. He was linked to several real estate scams and a string of shoplifting cases. His first arrest came in 1989, when he took $400 worth of merchandise, including two suits, from a Sears in Alhambra. At the time of his death he was living with his wife in Anaheim Hills.

  Mătăsăreanu was born in Timișoara, Romania. His parents moved the family to Altadena, California, in 1974, and he later attended Pasadena High School. He became an American citizen in 1988. It has been said that schoolmates bullied him over his accent and his weight. After his death, his mother told an interviewer that the bullying "caused him to turn to computers as a refuge." She called him "a sharpshooter and computer whiz" who "programmed arcade and video games." He earned a degree at DeVry University's Pomona campus and qualified as an electrical engineer. His computer repair business, Dechebal Inc., was relatively unsuccessful. In August 1996 he split from his wife after having a seizure. The couple had two sons.

  On the 20th of July 1993, the two men robbed an armored car outside a FirstBank branch in Littleton, Colorado. Three months later, on the 23rd of October, Glendale police pulled over Mătăsăreanu for speeding in a red 1993 Pontiac Firebird. He lied to the officer about who owned the car, and Phillips surrendered with a concealed weapon. A search of the vehicle found two semi-automatic rifles, a Springfield Armory .45 pistol and a Colt .45 pistol. It also held more than 1,600 rounds of rifle ammunition and 1,200 rounds of hollow point handgun ammunition. Officers also found radio scanners, six smoke bombs, improvised explosive devices, body armor vests, wigs, a stopwatch, a gas mask and three different California license plates.

  The men were first charged with conspiracy to commit robbery. A plea bargain reduced it to a misdemeanor. Each served 100 days in jail and three years of probation. Police returned most of the seized property, keeping only the firearms and explosives.

  The violence soon grew. On the 14th of June 1995, they ambushed a Brink's armored car in Winnetka, Los Angeles. They killed a guard named Herman Cook and seriously wounded another. In May 1996 they robbed two Bank of America branches in the San Fernando Valley and took about 1.5 million dollars. Their method never changed. They used automatic rifles to break through security doors, took control of the whole bank, and fired weapons that had been illegally obtained and modified for fully automatic fire. Investigators nicknamed them the "High Incident Bandits." For their next target, a branch on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood, they spent months studying the site.

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• 3. Armor And Arsenal

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  A jam jar of gasoline sat on the back seat of the white 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity. The robbers meant to set the car and its weapons on fire after the robbery, to destroy evidence. Their guns were heavier than anything a patrol officer carried. They brought a Beretta 92FS pistol and five rifles. One was a semi-automatic HK-91. The others were illegally converted weapons fitted with drum magazines.

  Two were Norinco Type 56 S rifles. A third, a Type 56 S-1, fired fully automatic, as did a Bushmaster XM15 Dissipator. The Bushmaster carried two 100-round Beta-C magazines. The Norincos used drums holding 75-100 rounds, along with 30-round box magazines. The HK-91 had extended 40-round magazines.

  News reports speculated that Phillips had bought two of the Norinco rifles legally and then converted them. That claim ran into a legal wall. Phillips was a convicted felon, and federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) barred him from possessing or buying any firearm.

  The armor was just as deliberate. Phillips wore roughly 40 pounds of equipment. It included a Type IIIA bulletproof vest, a groin guard and a vest with several military ammunition pouches. He had also made homemade armor from spare vests to cover his shins, thighs and forearms. Mătăsăreanu wore only a Type IIIA vest, but he added a metal ballistic plate over his vital organs. Each man had a watch sewn onto the back of one glove.

  Before going in, both took phenobarbital, a barbiturate that had been prescribed to Mătăsăreanu as a sedative. They hoped it would calm their nerves. The coroner's toxicology laboratory later found ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine in Phillips' blood, and phenytoin in Mătăsăreanu's.

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• 4. Inside The Bank

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  Officers Loren Farell and Martin Perello were driving down Laurel Canyon in a patrol car when they spotted the two men heading for the bank. Farell radioed in: "15-A-43, requesting assistance, we have a possible 211 in progress at the Bank of America."

  Each robber carried a Norinco Type 56 rifle as he approached the entrance. Near the door, they seized a customer who was leaving the ATM lobby and forced him inside and onto the floor. A security guard saw the scuffle and the heavily armed men. He radioed his partner in the parking lot to call the police, but that call was never received. Phillips shouted that it was a hold-up, and both men fired into the ceiling. They wanted to frighten the roughly thirty staff and customers and discourage any resistance.

  The bank's bulletproof door was built to resist only low-velocity pistol ammunition. Mătăsăreanu shot it open with his Norinco rifle and gained access to the tellers and the vault. The robbers made assistant manager John Villigrana open the vault and start filling their money bag.

  The haul was a disappointment. The gunmen had expected $750,000. A change in the bank's delivery schedule meant the vault held far less. Mătăsăreanu argued with Villigrana and demanded more money. In an apparent show of frustration, he emptied a full 75-round drum into the bank's safe and destroyed much of what remained.

  He then tried the ATM, but a policy change had left the branch manager without access to the cash inside. The robbers locked the hostages in the vault and walked out with $303,305. They also carried three dye packs, which later exploded and ruined part of the money.

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• 5. Outgunned On Laurel Canyon

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  The first officers on the scene had heard gunfire inside the bank and radioed a report of shots fired before taking cover behind their patrol car. While the robbers were still inside, more patrol and detective units arrived and took positions at all four corners of the building.

  At about 9:24 a.m., Phillips stepped out of the north doorway. He spotted a police cruiser roughly 200 feet away and opened fire for several minutes. He wounded Sergeant Dean Haynes, Officers Martin Whitfield, James Zboravan and Stuart Guy, and Detectives William Krulac and Tracey Angeles. Three civilians sheltering behind Haynes' patrol car were hit as well. Phillips even fired at an LAPD helicopter flown by Charles D. Perriguey Jr., which backed away to a safer distance.

  The officers returned fire with Beretta 92F/FS 9mm pistols, Smith & Wesson Model 15 .38 Special revolvers and 12-gauge Ithaca Model 37 shotguns. None of it got through the robbers' armor. Gunfire from the robbers pinned the officers down. About 10 to 15 minutes in, a voice on the police frequency warned others not to stop the getaway vehicle. The officer said, "they've got automatic weapons, there's nothing we have that can stop them." Several officers walked to a nearby gun store and came back with five AR-15-style rifles.

  Two spots gave the police real cover. Officer Richard Zielenski of the Valley Traffic Division used the west wall of the neighboring Del Taco, about 351 feet from Phillips. He fired 86 9mm rounds from there and is believed to have hit Phillips. His fire also drew attention away from Haynes and Whitfield, who were wounded and had only marginal cover behind trees across the boulevard.

  The second spot was the backyard of 6641 Agnes Avenue, where a cinder block wall shielded several detectives. Detectives Vince Bancroft and Kevin Harley fired between 15 and 24 rounds each from about 55 feet away. Around then, helicopter footage showed Phillips react to a wound in his left wrist. Police fire also hit the receiver of his HK-91 and jammed the magazine, which left the rifle useless.

  After a second officer-down call, the LAPD issued a tactical alert. An LAPD Metropolitan Division SWAT team of Donnie Anderson, Steve Gomez, Peter Weireter and Richard Massa arrived 18 minutes after the shooting began. They carried AR-15s and wore running shoes and shorts under their body armor, because they had been out on an exercise run when the call came. They commandeered a nearby armored car, driven by Hector Quevedo and David Campbell. For the rest of the fight it was the only way to pull wounded civilians and officers out of the line of fire.

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• 6. Archwood Street

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  In the parking lot, bullets struck Mătăsăreanu in the right buttock, the right leg and the left forearm. A fourth round lacerated the area above his right eye and sent him ducking behind the hood of the getaway car. He left his duffel bag of money behind, got into the car and started the engine. Phillips took a hit to the shoulder, and police bullets struck his rifle. He fired a few more shots with one arm, then discarded the ruined HK-91 and picked up the fully automatic Type 56 S-1. He left the lot on foot while Mătăsăreanu drove down the road.

  At 9:52 a.m., the two turned east on Archwood Street and split up. Phillips took cover behind a parked semi-truck and kept firing at Lieutenant Michael Ranshaw and Officers Conrado Torrez, John Caprarelli and Ed Brentlinger. Then his rifle suffered a stovepipe jam. He crawled beneath the trailer to clear it, slowed by the wound in his wrist.

  Mătăsăreanu drove to the far end of the truck, expecting Phillips to appear. An officer used the chance to fire several rounds at his car. Mătăsăreanu panicked and ducked behind the dashboard, and the car veered off to the right and bounced off the curb. A few seconds later he regained control and drove on, now completely separated from Phillips.

  Phillips could not clear the jam. He dropped the rifle, came out from under the truck and drew his Beretta pistol. He fired several shots as he walked down the sidewalk. Torrez then shot him in the right hand and he dropped the weapon. Phillips picked it up again and killed himself with it. As he fell, Caprarelli shot him in the upper torso and severed his spine. Either wound may have been fatal. Officers across the street kept firing at his body. Police then handcuffed him and removed his ski mask, because procedure for a criminal of his severity was to arrest him as if he were alive.

  Mătăsăreanu's car was nearly finished, with three tires shot out and bullet holes across the body and windows. He kept cruising down the street, bumping into other cars and making several failed carjacking attempts. At 9:56 a.m., he fired at the driver of a yellow 1963 Jeep Gladiator on Archwood, three blocks east of where Phillips died. The driver ran. Mătăsăreanu moved his weapons and ammunition into the Jeep but could not drive it, because the driver had switched on an electrical kill switch.

  KCBS and KCAL helicopters hovered overhead as a patrol car carrying SWAT officers Anderson, Gomez and Massa pulled up. Mătăsăreanu took cover behind the hood of the original getaway car and fought them in two and a half minutes of almost uninterrupted gunfire. His chest armor deflected a double tap from Anderson, which briefly winded him. Anderson then aimed his AR-15 beneath the cars and hit Mătăsăreanu's unprotected lower legs. Mătăsăreanu returned fire the same way. After several more hits he could no longer continue, and he put his hands up to show surrender. An ambulance had already been requested over the radio.

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• 7. The Toll

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  Paramedics followed standard procedure for hostile situations and refused to enter the hot zone. The area had not been cleared, and Mătăsăreanu was still considered dangerous. He lay swearing loudly and goading police to shoot him. He died before medics were allowed to reach him, almost 70 minutes later. Later reports showed 29 gunshot wounds in his legs. He died of blood loss from two wounds in his left thigh. Phillips had been shot 11 times, including the self-inflicted wound.

  News helicopters broadcast most of the incident live, including the death of Phillips and the surrender of Mătăsăreanu. More than 300 law enforcement officers from various agencies had responded to the citywide tactical alert. The two robbers fired about 1,100 rounds, roughly one round every two seconds. Police fired about 650.

  Much of that police fire did little. Following their training, the patrol officers aimed at center mass, the torso. The aramid body armor on both men covered everything vital except their heads. It absorbed pistol bullets and shotgun pellets. Mătăsăreanu's steel plate even held against a hit from a SWAT officer's AR-15. The patrol pistols lacked the power, and used the wrong type of ammunition, to penetrate even pistol-rated soft armor. A head shot was the alternative, but automatic fire made careful aim nearly impossible.

  Twelve police officers and eight civilians were injured. Officer Martin Whitfield was shot four times, in the left arm, right femur and chest. Detective Earl Valladares was hit in the head by flying debris. Officer David Grimes was injured in a traffic accident. Among the civilians, Mildred Nolte was struck across the face and Tracy Fisher was hit in the left pinkie toe. Property across both streets was damaged or destroyed too, and the shortfall in police firepower would soon become a public argument.

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• 8. Aftermath And Legacy

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  On the 17th of April 1997, police raided a house in Anaheim traced to the two robbers. They seized incendiary 7.62×39mm ammunition, flak jackets, ballistic helmets, about $400,000 in stolen cash and various firearms. One short-barreled AR-15 with an aftermarket red dot sight was later released from evidence for use by a law enforcement agency.

  The larger consequence was in how police were armed. Standard pistols and shotguns had failed against body armor. The result was a trend across the United States toward arming selected patrol officers, not just SWAT teams, with semi-automatic AR-15-style rifles. SWAT teams that relied on pistol-caliber submachine guns such as the Heckler & Koch MP5 began adding AR-15 rifles and carbines.

  Seven months after the shootout, the Department of Defense gave the LAPD 600 surplus M16 rifles. Each went to a patrol sergeant. LAPD patrol vehicles began carrying AR-15s as standard issue, and their doors received bullet-resistant Kevlar plating. The department also began allowing officers to carry .45 ACP semi-automatic pistols, specifically the Smith & Wesson Models 4506 and 4566. Before 1997, only SWAT officers could carry a .45 ACP, the M1911A1.

  On the 12th of June 1998, LAPD Chief of Police Bernard C. Parks gave the Board of Police Commissioners a memorandum reviewing officers' use of force that day. It recorded badge numbers, positions around the bank, firing distances and rounds fired. Parks commended personnel for actions that served to "distract" and "obstruct" the robbers. The following year, 18 officers received the departmental Medal of Valor and met President Bill Clinton.

  A lawsuit followed on behalf of Mătăsăreanu's children, brought by lawyer Stephen Yagman against Detective James Vojtecky and Officer John Futrell. It claimed his civil rights were violated when he was allowed to bleed to death. Jurors heard that an ambulance crew arrived and left without him after Vojtecky allegedly told them to get out. Vojtecky testified that he said something similar, and the driver said he believed he was in danger. The officers said they tried to bring an ambulance back. Plaintiffs focused on a moment when Futrell canceled an ambulance call and told the dispatcher, "I have no officers or citizens down, only a suspect." The trial in February and March 2000 ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. The suit was later dropped when the family agreed to dismiss it with a waiver of malicious prosecution.

  The event also fed popular culture. A semi-fictionalized television film, 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out, appeared in 2003. The opening scene of the 2003 film S.W.A.T. was loosely based on it. Blues Traveler recorded an album called North Hollywood Shootout, and Megadeth wrote a song called "44 Minutes." The 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V includes a mission, "The Paleto Score," loosely based on the event. Nicolas Cage starred in the 2018 film 211. Television documentaries and a Casefile podcast episode have covered it too.

  In 2004, the Los Angeles Police Museum in Highland Park opened an exhibit with two life-size mannequins fitted with armor and clothing like that of Phillips and Mătăsăreanu. The robbers' getaway car stands on display there, beside Officer Martin Whitfield's LAPD squad car.

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