Armored Car Guard Shot in Robbery : Crime: The bandits got more than $20,000 after wounding the guard during a shoot-out in Encino. Deputy marshals may have briefly detained the criminals before letting them go.

Two robbers fought a gun battle Monday with a Brink’s guard on Ventura Boulevard in Encino, leaving another guard wounded and escaping with more than $20,000, although they may have been briefly detained during their getaway by deputy marshals who mistakenly released them.

Los Angeles police said the deputy county marshals happened on the scene and apparently stopped the getaway car, but let it go because the occupants didn’t fit the descriptions of the suspects given them by witnesses.

The shooting at 10:10 a.m. at Mitsui Manufacturers Bank in the 16200 block of busy Ventura Boulevard sent customers and employees scrambling for cover.

Police said the gunmen might be the same well-dressed bandits who robbed an armored car guard as he stepped out of a bank in nearby Sherman Oaks two weeks ago.

In Wednesday’s robbery, Brink’s guard Mark Spurlock took cash into the bank while the driver, Miguel Mendoza, waited at the curb in the armored car, police said.

Lt. Salvador Hoyos said Spurlock made the delivery, then collected four bags containing $20,000 to $100,000 each and wheeled them on a cart through the front door, where he was confronted by two armed men wearing business suits.

“The suspects took his gun and the money,” Hoyos said. “At this point, the driver of the truck saw what was happening and got out. There was a brief exchange of gunfire.”

Hoyos said the driver and the robbers fired four or five shots. Spurlock was hit in the upper left leg by a bullet but because he was in the cross-fire, it was not known if the robbers or the other guard shot him. He fell to the pavement by the door and the robbers fled through the bank, dropping all but one of the moneybags as they ran, Hoyos said.

Bank customers said the shots, shouts and running men caused a brief panic.

“People were running for cover, myself included,” customer Tom Walls said. “I was trying to find a safe place because people were shooting up the place.”

The robbers ran through the bank into a rear parking garage where a third man was waiting in a car, police said. While two bystanders ran to Spurlock’s aide, Mendoza jumped back in the truck, drove around the corner and sped down Libbit Avenue to the garage exit in an attempt to block the robbers’ escape, police said.

Two deputy marshals preparing to serve a subpoena in a nearby office building heard the shots, ran to the scene and headed down Libbit to stop the robbers.

Hoyos said the marshals stopped a car leaving the garage and pointed weapons at the three black men inside it, but after a few moments they signaled the driver to proceed. The marshals, who were not identified, had apparently been told by witnesses that one of the robbers was a white woman and let the car go, police said.

“There is a high possibility it was the getaway car,” Hoyos said. “But at that moment the description they had did not coincide with what they had in front of them. They feel bad about it, but these things happen.”

After police arrived, the 12-story bank building and garage were sealed off for more than an hour until police concluded that the bandits had escaped.

Spurlock, 25, of Los Angeles was taken to Encino Hospital next door, where he was in good condition, police said.

Hoyos said the robbery was similar to an armed robbery July 24 at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, about 10 blocks away on Ventura Boulevard.

In that case, two armed men in business suits confronted a guard as he stepped out of a mall exit after making a cash pickup at Imperial Bank. Police said the robbers took the guard’s gun, then ran inside the mall and escaped with about $10,000 despite a police search.