2 Suspects Slain, 10 Officers Injured in Heist Gone Awry

In warlike pursuit captured on live TV, dozens of police officers tracked down and killed two heavily armed bank robbers in North Hollywood on Friday in the face of blistering automatic-weapons fire. Ten officers were wounded, including six in a spectacular eruption of firepower that draped a shroud of fear over a vast residential area of the eastern San Fernando Valley.

Three civilians were also hit by gunfire in a confrontation that recalled the apocalyptic 1974 gun battle between police and the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Maoist kidnappers of heiress Patty Hearst in South-Central Los Angeles.

The day brought renewed calls for gun controls and for better weapons to aid outgunned police.

In one of many scenes of inexplicably brazen conduct that appalled the nation, one of the robbers--braced for battle in full body armor--strode across the Bank of America parking lot near Laurel Canyon and Victory boulevards, spraying bullets at outgunned officers moments before he was shot to death on a nearby residential street. Police gunned him down when he stepped out from a hiding spot, apparently to face his death.

The identities of the two dead robbers had not been released by Friday night. At least two other suspects in the robbery were being sought. None of the officers or civilians wounded by gunfire was seriously injured.

The shooting spread rapidly down house-lined streets, placing dozens of square blocks under siege, sending pedestrians ducking for cover, scattering motorists and forcing homeowners behind locked doors for hours.

In pursuit of other possible suspects, police closed streets and freeways and even sealed off 10 nearby public schools. Residents living within the battle zone were advised to stay home or to call 911 for police escorts out of the area.

“I was scared to go out but I did, ‘cuz my grandma was out there too,” said a 12-year-old witness, Ramella Aleksanyan. “We saw a guy who they shot but he wasn’t really dead. He was kinda moving.”

In one of countless dramas videotaped by news helicopters--which also came under fire--one of the wounded officers was rescued from the bank parking lot by three colleagues who shielded him with a patrol car, scooped him inside and lurched away backward with one door open.

So lopsided was the disparity in weaponry that nine frantic officers, probably in violation of Los Angeles Police Department policy, barged into a North Hollywood gun shop and borrowed seven rifles and ammunition.

“They asked us if they could have some firepower, namely that would penetrate vests,” said the gun store owner, who asked that his name not be used.

When the gunfire stopped after about an hour, it seemed a miracle that so few were wounded.

Besides the shooting victims, an officer and a motorist were injured in a collision as police raced through the area. Three other officers sustained minor injuries during the manhunt. The injured were being treated at several hospitals. One officer who was shot was in surgery at Providence Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, and a motorist was in critical condition Friday.

“These are very organized, brutal bank robbery suspects. They’re killers,” LAPD Cmdr. Tim McBride said into the television cameras, emphasizing the need for people to stay indoors.

Masked Gunmen Storm Bank

At least two heavily armed gunmen--suspects in earlier San Fernando Valley bank robberies--stormed the bank about 9:15 a.m., brandishing fully automatic weapons with 100-round clips.

Barking commands, the masked gunmen herded dozens of terrified customers into a vault.

Police said the robbers turned and fired their weapons back into the bank, wounding one person, as they were leaving with a cart loaded with bags of money. All the cash was recovered at the scene.

A call from a witness who saw the armored men walk into the bank brought the first police units, armed only with handguns. They were engulfed in a gunfight, with combatants and bystanders virtually rubbing shoulders.

Crystal Ransome was leaving the bank as the gunmen entered, pulling masks over their faces. She sought cover in her car when she heard gun reports. “I was laying down in my car, and the next thing I know, a cop is telling me, ‘Get out, get out,’ ” she said. “A cop ran me across the street. He was holding his gun drawn the whole time.”

Retreating from the surrounded bank, one robber took cover behind the getaway car--a white sedan--as it crept across the parking lot, blasting away in several directions and reaching inside for ammunition to reload. At one point, he apparently fired a round through the car window, either hitting or just missing his cohort at the wheel. Then he walked to a residential street, firing bursts of bullets along the way.

As police cautiously closed in, the suspect crouched in shadows between a large truck and a fence, but then stood. Walking along the sidewalk, he exchanged fire with his pursuers, falling after being hit, then jerking gruesomely from a shot to the head.

Meanwhile, as the getaway vehicle drove off in another direction, police shot out its tires. The driver pressed on at low speed. On a residential street nearby, he rammed an approaching car. After it eluded him, he shot through the window of an oncoming truck, apparently to scare away its driver, who fled to a nearby house.

From her porch, homeowner Tagui Guzubashyan saw the suspect get into his truck but abandon it when he couldn’t get it started. Methodically, he began to unload weapons from his car trunk, picking his way across the carpet of bullet casings and glass.

Just then a patrol car with automatic weapons blazing out its windows pinned the suspect down behind his car. Three SWAT officers tumbled from the car and opened fire, taking cover behind the wheels.

“We heard maybe 200 or 300 shots,” Guzubashyan said. “It was horrible. It was like in the movies.”

Finally, a helmeted officer in shorts took a prone position behind the police car to shoot the suspect’s legs. The man died on the street in handcuffs.

In the confusion attending the battles, several pedestrians were detained by officers who ordered them to lie spread-eagled on the asphalt; they were later released after it was determined they were not involved.

Search for Missing Suspects

About 30 minutes after the last gunshots, a mounting army of police and SWAT team members deployed carefully around a backyard littered with equipment and junk. After sizing up the situation for more than an hour, a police battering ram broke down a wall and part of a tool shed where they thought a suspect was hiding.

Officers unleashed police dogs, but after about 30 minutes of searching, the SWAT team determined that no one was in the yard.

At 2 p.m., Police Chief Willie L. Williams announced that the police had cleared the last areas where suspects might have been hiding. Twenty minutes later, television stations reported that the police had found a trail of blood in the yard.

The Hollywood Freeway, closed during the battle, reopened about 2 p.m., averting a potential traffic nightmare as commuters headed home for the weekend. But many streets remained closed.

The search for what police believed were two or three more robbers continued through the afternoon with no further success.

Friday evening, Williams said police believed that there had been only two men in the holdup. However, a large force continued to search surrounding streets with dogs while police escorts shuttled residents in and out until late in the night as officers in helicopters kept watch.

A source familiar with the rapidly unfolding investigation said authorities have strong reason to believe that the suspects killed in Friday’s shootout also were responsible for two robberies last May.

That source said the techniques employed by the robbers resembled those used by gunmen who robbed a Bank of America branch on Woodman Avenue in Van Nuys on May 2, and another B of A branch on Roscoe Boulevard in Canoga Park on May 31.

He said the robbers in those earlier heists used high-powered weapons, fired rounds in the banks and operated with “military-like precision.”

“The MO and physical description are not just close, they are right on,” the source said of the May robberies and Friday’s. “The weaponry, including the high-velocity rounds, were fired in all these robberies. And that’s an anomaly.”

Although it has been nine months since the previous robberies--a long hiatus for bank robbers--the heists last May netted the culprits a substantial sum of money, sources said. That could account for the long break between robberies.

Calls for Gun Control

The widespread terror left city and state political leaders scrambling for explanations and renewing calls for greater gun control.

“We have people equipped for warfare out there--it’s unbelievable,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee. “I can’t think of a more graphic, visual reason for the public of the United States of America to all get on board in advocating for rational, reasonable and sensible gun control.

“We have to find a way to eliminate military assault weapons being out on the streets,” Chick added. “These people are better armed than our law enforcement experts.”

Some lawmakers advocated a state law that would allow the city to enact stronger gun control regulations. They also called for providing more firepower to police.

Inside

* Police worry that live TV coverage might sometimes show too much. A20

* Bullets tearing the air kept a shocked neighborhood under siege. A21

* Bill Boyarsky and Shawn Hubler on violent fiction and reality. B1

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Getaway Route

(1) Suspects flee bank, wounding police officers as they go. One suspect walks, the other dives.

(2) Suspect on foot is downed by police, who are firing (3) from across the street

(4) Suspect in car continues down Archwood, bumping oncoming car as he goes.

(5) Pickup truck coming in opposite direction is abandoned; suspect stops his car.

(6) Police car pulls up; officers fatally wound second suspect.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Under Siege

Here is a look at the sequence of events Friday morning in North Hollywood when a botched robbery attempt at a Bank of America branch led to a shootout between suspects and police.

The Toll: 2 gunmen killed, 10 police officers, injured 5 bystanders injured.

Police perimeter (as of late Friday): Residents at home who were ordered to remain there, while those who wanted into the area needed a police escort.

Schools: Police officers were deployed to secure the campuses of 10 public schools in a 2-mile radius. Private schools in the area were also instructed to secure their campuses.

Cost to business: Merchants in the area closed their businesses, some of them stuck inside, unable to leave for hours.

Road closures: Hollywood Freeway between I-5 and the Ventura Freeway closed till 2 p.m. Friday. Detours were expected on surface streets in the area for a day or two.

Tactical alert: A citywide tactical alert was declared by the Los Angeles Police Department following the shootout, which allows officers to be held over after the end of their normal shift and a maximum number of officers are made available for duty.

1. Suspects flee bank parking lot, firing at cars, helicopters and police as they go.

2. First suspect killed while walking down sidewalk

3. Second suspect killed while trying to commandeer a truck.

*** UNPUBLISHED NOTE ***

The map called “Under Siege” that accompanied this article on March 1, 1997 incorrectly placed the location of the holdup site on the west side of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The Bank of America that was the target of the foiled bank robbery is on the east side of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, between Archwood and Kittridge streets.

*** END NOTE ***