Police Fatally Shoot Suspected Bank Robber

A man suspected in a string of at least 20 bank robberies throughout the San Fernando Valley was shot and killed by Los Angeles police Thursday in a church parking lot after a bank holdup attempt and a foot chase down a tree-lined street.

The unidentified man, who allegedly threatened police with a knife, was shot by officers who had staked out the California Federal Bank at 15054 Ventura Blvd., as well as an undisclosed number of other area banks they believed might next be visited by the holdup artist, according to police spokesman Lt. John Dunkin.

The suspect was described as male, 35 years old, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, and weighing 200 pounds, and was reportedly driving a dark green Jeep.

Authorities said he might be the same man who robbed a Southern California Savings branch in Woodland Hills earlier in the day. And although police would not discuss previous incidents in which they believe he was involved, a man fitting a similar description robbed the Charter Pacific Bank in Agoura Hills on Monday.

About 2:10 p.m. Tuesday, Dunkin said, the suspect walked into the California Federal Bank and produced a note demanding cash. When the robbery was “completed,” according to a police statement, the teller alerted nearby Officers Jose Maldonado and Ronald Capra, who pursued the man as he fled out a rear door.

With Los Angeles police officers giving chase, Dunkin said, the man ran south on Noble Avenue and then briefly west on Dickens Street into the rear parking lot of the First Presbyterian Church of Sherman Oaks.

Cornered and standing behind the Jeep police believe was the getaway vehicle, the suspect brandished a 6-inch knife, police said. When told to drop the weapon and surrender, according to the statement, the man turned and confronted the officers.

“He refused and advanced on Officers Maldonado and Capra,” the statement read. Maldonado fired three shots and Capra fired twice, each using a 9-millimeter service weapon.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Both officers felt that the suspect was approaching them in a threatening manner,” Dunkin said at the scene. “They had already warned him to drop the knife and believed the appropriate means to stop him was through use of their weapons. He was close enough that the officers feared bodily injury.”

Dunkin said no one in the bank was injured. He would not say if the man made off with any cash.

He also would not say how officers had chosen California Federal as one of their stakeout sites or how the teller had signaled them that a robbery was in progress.

“We didn’t know who the guy was,” Dunkin said. “If we did, obviously we would have preferred to take him into custody under different circumstances.”

At 5:15 p.m., three hours after the shooting, the man’s body still lay in the parking lot, directly behind the green Jeep, as a dozen uniformed officers and detectives, dressed in raincoats on the gray, drizzly day, walked back and forth.

Lying face up, donned in sneakers, not far from a lone basketball hoop, the bloodied body was covered with a clear plastic sheet. The man’s shirt had been ripped open in an apparent attempt to save his life.

Across the street, kept back by yellow plastic police tape, wide-eyed neighbors looked on at the scene, some discussing how they had heard the gunfire.

“It was just like fireworks--blam, blam, blam, blam, blam,” said resident Pollyann Gowrie, who stood on the lawn of an apartment building. “At first I heard sirens and then the gunfire. It was really weird. At first we just thought it was some traffic accident.”

Witnesses said the chase, stand-off and shots all happened quickly.

“It was over in an instant,” resident Tim Tschopp said. “You heard the shots and then saw the guys running around with flak jackets with the words ‘Police’ written on them. The next thing you know, the police tape was up.”

Residents of the quiet neighborhood, one block south of Ventura Boulevard and the popular Mel’s restaurant, said the shooting sent a shock wave through an area not used to big-city violence. “This is stunning, really,” Gowrie said.

John Wagner, manager of the nearby Copperfield apartment building, said he was relieved the shooting did not occur at a time toddlers attending the church nursery were in the parking lot.

“You can imagine what would have happened otherwise,” he said.

A man who answered the telephone at the First Presbyterian Church Tuesday night said only that “most of the children had already left the nursery school” by the time shooting started.

Neighbors watched as the body was whisked away by the coroner’s office. “Really, though, this is a great neighborhood,” Wagner said.

“We were just about to go out and walk our dogs when we heard the gunshots. What a surprise that was.”

Nearby, a woman ushered her two preschool-aged children along the sidewalk. “What happened, Mommy?” one asked.

“Nothing, honey,” the woman replied quickly. “Nothing at all.”

Times staff writer Chip Johnson contributed to this story.