3 Arrested in Calabasas Bank Robbery; 4th Escapes

Three juveniles were captured but a fourth suspect escaped Tuesday in an attempted bank robbery in Calabasas that ended in a chase and manhunt in Woodland Hills.

Two of the suspects, one allegedly armed with a handgun, reportedly entered a Wells Fargo Bank at 23701 Calabasas Road shortly after 10 a.m. The pair demanded a bank official open a vault to an automated teller machine, said Deputy Jeff Cannon, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

But before the vault was opened, the two suspects reportedly fled the bank. They ran to a waiting van that contained two additional suspects.

As they fled west on Calabasas Road, the suspects were spotted by a patrol deputy who gave chase, Cannon said. The fleeing van, which was reported stolen Monday, entered the eastbound Ventura Freeway at Parkway Calabasas, then exited six miles later at Fallbrook Avenue with deputies in pursuit.

Cannon said the suspects abandoned the van in the 20800 block of Martha Street and fled on foot. Three of the suspects were apprehended immediately. A handgun believed used in the robbery was found in the van, he said.

Sheriff’s and LAPD officials cordoned off a parking structure at nearby Kaiser Foundation Hospital, at De Soto Avenue and Burbank Boulevard, where the fourth suspect was believed to be hiding. Hospital officials said dozens of clients and employees were kept in the hospital while police searched the parking structure for more than three hours.

The escaped suspect was described as being between the ages of 16 and 22, wearing a plaid shirt and gray pants. Identities of those arrested were withheld because of their ages.