Gunmen May Be Linked to Denver Attack

Federal authorities are attempting to link the two robbers who died last week in the violent bank siege in North Hollywood to an ambush attack on an armored car guard in Denver nearly four years ago--a crime that authorities believe could be the first of several similar robberies committed by the duo.

The July 20, 1993, robbery outside a Denver bank has similarities to the others, including physical descriptions of the suspects and the use of military assault-style weapons, said William Rehder, who coordinates bank robbery investigations for the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

The two gunmen shot by police last week, Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, were armed with AK-47s and other weapons and wore full body armor. After robbing the Bank of America branch on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, they engaged in a bloody gunfight outside with police. Six civilians and 11 police officers were wounded or injured. One officer remains hospitalized in good condition.

FBI agents, working in conjunction with the agency’s Denver office, are examining the details of the July 20, 1993, robbery of a Denver guard. That attack resembles one in June 1995 in which a Brink’s guard was killed in the San Fernando Valley, Rehder said.

“This one is certainly interesting to us,” Rehder said. “If it comes to pass that it was these two lads, then [that] is where this kind of activity started.”

Federal authorities already believe the pair are responsible for two Bank of America robberies in the San Fernando Valley last May, which netted them between $1.3 million and $1.7 million. The FBI also is trying to link the men to two attempted armored car heists in the Valley, including the June 14, 1995, killing of a Brink’s guard outside a Winnetka bank branch.

In both the Denver and Winnetka robberies, federal authorities said the pair probably used AK-47s and approached the guard from two directions as he was leaving the bank with money.

Meanwhile, new details emerged Friday about Phillips’ arrest the previous year in Denver in connection with a real estate-related crime.

Det. Jim Hess of the Denver Police Department described Phillips as “very slick and professional” when he operated real estate scams in that city. He was arrested in October 1992 in a sting operation and he pleaded guilty to a felony count of attempted theft. He posted $10,000 bail but failed to return to court for his March 1993 sentencing.

According to Hess, Phillips would obtain lockbox numbers from real estate agents. He would then advertise the properties in the local newspapers as rentals, show the properties and rent them. At one point, Hess said, two couples appeared on the same day to move into the same condominium.

Said the Denver detective: “He was gutsy, he was taking chances and he was real smooth.”