Man Killed in Gunfight With Bank Guards

In a furious gun battle Tuesday morning in Van Nuys, two security guards--both of them retired law enforcement officers--shot and killed one man and wounded another after spotting the men drive up behind a Great Western Bank and pull on ski masks in apparent preparation for a robbery, authorities said.

At least a dozen rounds were exchanged between the two guards and one of the suspects, who wielded a semiautomatic 9-millimeter pistol and later died of gunshot wounds, police and onlookers said.

The injured man was unarmed, as were three other would-be robbers, whose escape--one of them through the bank itself--prompted officers to block off neighborhoods, evacuate residents and alert nearby schools.

It was unclear who fired first or whether the armed man threatened the two guards--a retired Los Angeles police officer and a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

The gunfight and ensuing search immediately evoked memories of the North Hollywood shootout between police and a pair of heavily armed bank robbers just seven months ago.

But this time, only the criminals were wounded in the fiery exchange.

The shooting erupted 40 minutes after the bank in the 6500 block of Van Nuys Boulevard opened for business at 9 a.m.

The two security guards, who were wearing street clothes, were outside watching as a blue mid-sized car with five men inside pulled up behind the bank. Three of the men got out. They donned ski masks and strode toward the bank, Los Angeles Police Lt. Tony Alba said. One of them held the semiautomatic pistol, police said. When the men failed to heed shouts to stop, gunfire broke out.

The third masked man bolted into the bank and out the front door, while the two suspects in the car drove off, Alba said. Paramedics pronounced one of the men dead at the scene, while the other--described only as a 20-year-old male--was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Reseda, where he was listed in guarded condition later Tuesday after undergoing surgery, hospital officials said.

The FBI and the LAPD’s robbery-homicide division were conducting an investigation to determine the exact sequence of events leading to the gunfight.

“Good shooting or bad shooting? We don’t know until the investigation is over,” said Officer Jason Lee, an LAPD spokesman.

But Alba credited the pair with foiling a bank heist that might have had dire consequences.

“It is not known if these people would have turned violent inside the bank,” Alba said.

The LAPD declined to release the names of the two retired officers, citing concerns for their safety. Police referred requests for their identities to the security company that employed them, which would not provide the names.

For hours after the shootout, 60 police officers cordoned off, searched and partially evacuated the neighborhood west of the bank. Police marked more than 40 pieces of evidence, including many spent shells, in the parking lot behind the bank.

An officer guarding one street corner waved away a woman trying to drive home. She trembled as she pleaded with the policeman to let her through.

“I come home every day to feed my dad,” she said. “He’s 85 years old.”

As police dogs tried to sniff out the suspects, officers in bulletproof vests and armed with shotguns and rifles escorted chiropractor Dr. Richard Ross, his wife Gail and their patients out of their clinic on Vesper Avenue.

“The first thing I thought about was the North Hollywood robbery, and how thankful I was that they [the guards] were there,” said Gail Ross.

Ten nearby city schools were put on alert, but only the lone campus within the evacuation area, Sylvan Park Elementary School, went into “lockdown” mode. It still was able to dismiss students at the regular time, school district officials said.

Although police failed to track down the three fugitives, they discovered the suspects’ abandoned car, which had been reported stolen, nearby at Sylvan Street and Norwich Avenue, about a mile from the bank.

Tim McGarry, a spokesman for Great Western Bank, said the bank on Van Nuys Boulevard had been robbed twice before, in April and July of last year. He said he was not authorized to give any details about the firm’s security measures, including the use of undercover security guards.

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The two guards worked for Investigative and Protective Services of America, an Oakland-based security firm that hires retired police officers. The company is owned by American Protective Services, which boasts 17,000 security guards nationwide, said APS Senior Vice President Tom Sutak, who could not recall an incident similar to Tuesday’s gunfight involving any APS guards.

The guards probably had permits to carry concealed weapons because ordinarily officers who retire honorably from the force are given that privilege, authorities said.

Unlike the North Hollywood shootout in February, during which dozens of bank customers were trapped and live footage of the gun battle was broadcast around the country, there were few witnesses to Tuesday’s botched bank job. But local businesses felt the aftereffects as customers stayed away in droves.

“Nothing is walking the street, and [no one] is coming in,” said Tom Sorrentino, manager of Coast Footwear, who arrived at his store about 15 minutes after the gun battle. By late afternoon, only three customers had come in, rather than the 50 to 100 people who normally visit the store each day.

“It’s pretty bad,” he said.

Times staff writers Henry Chu and Duke Helfand and correspondent Claire Vitucci contributed to this story.