Elite LAPD Team on the Scene at Bank Robbery

Seconds before two armed robbers emerged from a Ventura Boulevard bank on Wednesday, four members of an elite Los Angeles Police Department team were on the scene prepared for exactly that kind of activity.

The officers, part of the LAPD’s Metro Division, were patrolling along Ventura Boulevard in the West Valley at the request of robbery detectives investigating a rash of recent bank holdups in the area.

But the officers, who fired about half a dozen shots at the men, were unsuccessful in apprehending the robbers, who remained free Thursday. After the shooting, the suspects fell to the ground, rolled and crawled a few feet before fleeing--even crossing the Ventura Freeway--before escaping through a Woodland Hills neighborhood.

“I don’t know how anyone could imagine that two men could have escaped gunfire and then run across eight lanes of traffic--probably going about 70 mph--and lived to tell about it,” said Lt. Pete Durham of the Metro Division. “These are very proficient crooks. They didn’t panic. They took some very positive steps to make sure they weren’t captured . . . They should have bought Lotto tickets.”

The massive manhunt, which tied up traffic on the freeway and surrounding streets for hours Wednesday afternoon, also included searches late into the evening in the neighborhood north of the freeway between Winnetka and De Soto avenues and Clark and Oxnard streets.

About 50 to 60 Metro officers were patrolling the Valley on Wednesday and aided in the search, LAPD officials said.

Employees of businesses near the bank, located at 20259 Ventura Blvd., said they saw the police in the area earlier in the day. One man said an officer told him that they were staking out the bank.

But LAPD spokesman Lt. Tony Alba denied that the officers were watching that particular bank, saying they were keeping tabs on a number of banks in that area.

West Valley Capt. Bob Gale said he believed it was fortunate that the Metro officers, who are considered among the best and most highly trained in the department, were in the Valley that day. But he said some communications problems arose between the divisions, with the Metro officers broadcasting on one radio frequency and the West Valley officers on another.