2 Injured in Shootout on Van Nuys Boulevard : Violence: An alleged robber and a security guard are injured. Two other suspects are also arrested.

Two people were critically wounded in a running gun battle that erupted on a busy Van Nuys street Thursday afternoon after police foiled the getaway of three armed men who had allegedly just robbed several patients in a dental office, authorities said.

In a scene that horrified witnesses compared to a Western movie shootout, the gunmen fled on foot, shooting over their shoulders at pursuing officers who had rammed their car as it left a parking lot in the 7300 block of Sepulveda Boulevard.

One of the suspects was shot several times and a second gave up moments later in a second volley. The third was caught without incident after a dramatic two-hour standoff at a nearby apartment house during which police escorted terrified residents out of danger. A private security guard was also shot in the melee and two employees of the dental office were pistol-whipped, police said.

Witnesses said the three men stormed into the dental office at 2:30 p.m., demanding jewelry and money from five patients and three workers.

“They said, ‘Give us your money. Give us your jewelry. Don’t you have a safe here?’ ” said one of the patients, who declined to give her name.

Police said the gunmen pistol-whipped a doctor and a nurse in the office. The victims’ identities were not known.

Police identified the gunmen as Michael Mitchell, 29, who was wounded, his brother, Lamont Mitchell, 21, and Charles Knight, 21.

A worker at a travel agency next to the dental office noticed the robbery in progress and phoned 911, police said.

Several patrol cars arrived as the suspects were driving out of the dental office parking lot and one rammed the getaway car, a battered Camaro, in the left front fender, witnesses said.

The car managed to keep going, however. Witnesses said it careened through the Pic N Save lot, apparently trying to get onto Sepulveda Boulevard. Instead, it crashed into a power pole.

“They hopped out of the car like fleas,” said Alex Cota, who was hanging a sign at a building next door. “The cops left their car and started running after them. . . . The gun-firing was something else. Pow , pow , pow , like the OK Corral.”

The suspects ran south, jumping a low wall that divided the parking lot from a gas station, opening fire on a motorcycle officer who drove into the parking lot in pursuit. The officer returned fire.

“There were a lot of bullets flying,” said Bob Martyn, owner of a car rental firm across the street from the dental office.

“People started screaming and ducking,” said Jack Lefton, 47, of Simi Valley, a motorist who was on his way to drop off clothes at a dry cleaner nearby. “All hell broke loose.”

Lefton said he saw two of the men assault a motorcyclist, throwing him off his bike. When they could not start the bike, they abandoned it.

The men continued running south across Sherman Way with about 10 officers pursuing, guns drawn, on foot and several motorcycles and cars converging, witnesses said.

Ducking inside the Central Valley Baazar, an L-shaped building in the block south of Sherman Way, the suspects got into a gun battle with the security guard, Byron Reyes, and were still shooting when they met officers who opened fire again, police said.

Michael Mitchell and the security guard, who was in surgery late Thursday, were both shot in the exchange.

“I saw his face. He wasn’t afraid,” said Rosa Soto, manager of a Foster’s Freeze across the street who ran with customers to the windows to watch the shootout. “It was weird. He was so determined to stop him--the suspect--from going inside. We were afraid when they shot him. We went, ‘Oh, God. We know him.’ ”

Soto said Reyes had worked for the swap meet about two years and came to her shop every day.

“The security guard was good, this time he saved our lives,” said the swap meet owner, who declined to be identified.

The second suspect, Lamont Mitchell, then gave himself up, but Knight got away and later took refuge in an apartment complex several hundred yards to the south.

Police said it was not clear whether police or Reyes shot the suspect.

Reyes was being treated at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. His family asked that no information be released, a spokeswoman said.

The wounded suspect underwent surgery at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. The hospital would release no information, but a police officer said, “There were several gunshot wounds, and he was in a lot of pain.”

The final suspect, Knight, bolted farther south to a two-story apartment building where a tenant turned him away from a security door.

“With him squatting behind the bushes and all the police in the street, I knew that something was wrong,” said the woman, who identified herself only as Nita.

She said she let the door close and lock behind her and walked toward the police.

However, residents concluded that he apparently broke through the glass doors, because the hinges were damaged. Police surrounded the building and began escorting some tenants out of the apartment house and a motel next door.

Residents said the suspense ended swiftly when SWAT team members went into the complex with dogs and came back only moments later leading a shirtless youth, who was found hiding in a garage storage bin. Jan Osburn, a tenant who remained inside the enclosed complex the whole time, said she was walking out of the garage and saw “all the police in the world were standing right there.”

She said they waved her back into the garage, and later allowed her to come out.

“Why don’t you check the lockers,” she said, directing them to the garage where a homeless man once lived in a storage bin.

A SWAT officer led a dog that way, and it immediately started to growl, picking up the scent, Osburn said.

Staff writers Vivien Lou Chen and Jocelyn Y. Stewart and correspondent Ed Bond contributed to this story.