LAPD officers are prepared to fire at the intersection of Vanowen Street and Gentry Avenue in North Hollywood during a standoff with bank robbers who were holding several people hostage. (1997) (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
SWAT officers move into position outside a Ventura house where Roland “Ronnie” Sheehan had barricaded himself inside, holding his estranged girlfriend at knifepoint before killing her. (1998) (Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)
LAPD SWAT officers arrive to relieve Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies at a home where they believed fugitive Jesse James Hollywood might be hiding. (2000) (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Santa Ana SWAT officers use an armored vehicle as cover during a raid on the Santa Nita gang. (2000) (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Tuyen Than Nam is subdued by Garden Grove SWAT officers after police responded to a report that he was holding his ex-wife hostage. (2004) (Al Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
FBI SWAT officers protect a rescue truck during an operation on Santo Tomas Drive in Baldwin Village. (2005) (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Team members move in at an apartment building in Stanton after a man holding his family hostage released his son. (2006) (Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times)
Kidnapping suspect Eduardo Medina is arrested after an hours-long standoff on the Long Beach Freeway near Firestone Boulevard in South Gate. (2006) (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
A SWAT officer waits outside an apartment complex in Westminster as other officers search it for a gunman. (2007) (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)
