How a Hollywood Blockbuster Inspired America’s Most Famous Robbery and Shootout—in North Hollywood

00:00:10
Speaker 1: And we continue with Our American Stories. Here to tell another great American story is our regular contributor, Ashley Lebinski. Ashley is the former co-host of Discovery Channel’s “Master of Arms,” the former curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and is the co-founder of the University of Wyoming College of Law’s Firearms Research Center. Here’s Ashley.

00:00:37
Speaker 2: One of the most infamous bank robberies in American history occurred on February 28th, 1997, and at 10:01 a.m., two armed bank robbers and officers of the Los Angeles Police Department engaged in a shootout where, quite literally, willpower won out over firepower. The North Hollywood Shootout is a really interesting case study in a transition of how law enforcement supplies their officers and how they engage in crime. So, on February 28th at 9:17 a.m., armed with automatic and semi-automatic weapons—and so automatic, just for anyone who’s not aware, means that every time you press the trigger, the firearm continuously fires until you either release the trigger, the firearm malfunctions, or you run out of ammunition.

00:01:34
Speaker 3: And a semi.

00:01:35
Speaker 2: Automatic firearm means that every time you press the trigger, it fires one round. So, these bank robbers had automatic and semi-automatic firearms. They had 3,000 rounds of ammunition and full body armor with them, and their names were Larry Phillips Jr. and a Romanian immigrant, Emil Mata Serrano, and they entered the Bank of America in,

00:01:57
Speaker 3: North Hollywood, California.

00:02:00
Speaker 2: Prior to entering, this is kind of a random aside, but the parent taken pena Barbadal, which was a prescription that Mata Serrano had for seizures, and they took that to calm their nerves when they went into the bank. And before they went in, they synchronized their watch to 6 minutes. But the robbery actually doesn’t go as planned, and it takes them a total of 10 minutes before exiting, and this is one of those kind of experiences where 4 minutes really changed everything.

00:02:29
Speaker 3: Ever. The men entered the,

00:02:31
Speaker 2: bank, and they, like you hear in all bank robberies, Hollywood or not, they demanded everyone get on the floor, and they actually fired their guns into the ceiling to intimidate them and make the people that were in the bank realized that they weren’t messing around. And one of the things they started doing is they were shooting at the bullet through vaults. So, obviously, they were trying to get their money quickly, and once they were successfully in it, they started having the tellers fill their bags with money in the safe. But a kind of big flub in the plan was that there was significantly less cash than they had anticipated. When Mata Serrano and Phillips were making the plan for this bank robbery, they were under the impression that there would be over $800,000, but what they were surprised to see was that there were only $303,000 available at the time, which is done a lot of money, but if you’re expecting $800,000, I guess you’re going to be a little disappointed, and they definitely were, because in anger, Mata Serrano actually emptied a 50-round drum magazine into the vault and,

00:03:32
Speaker 3: destroyed the rest of the money.

00:03:34
Speaker 2: Maybe they shouldn’t have done drugs before they went into that. Probably didn’t help. So, one thing they tried to do—and this is what delayed, though—was they actually attempted to access the ATM, and that’s what delays,

00:03:44
Speaker 3: them 4 minutes. What they’re also not aware,

00:03:47
Speaker 2: of was that two officers actually saw them enter the bank with their ski masks, body armor, and firearms, and they had already called for backup. Phillips and Mata Serrano were actually known to the police before this bank robbery. Phillips was a career criminal, and Mata Serrano was a Romanian immigrant, and they met at all places: the gym, because Mata Serrano was going through a little bit of a rough time. He was overweight and estranged from his wife and child. So, I mean, of course, why not go spend your time at the gym? And they met, they started working together, and they became known as the High Incident Bandits. In 1993, they were actually pulled over for speeding, and in their vehicle, officers found two semi-automatic rifles, two pistols, 1,200 rounds of ammunition, smoke bombs, explosives, and body armor. And as a result of this fine, Phillips and Mata Serrano spent 99 and 71 days in jail, respectively. So, they weren’t new to this, to this crime life, and prior to the North Hollywood Shootout, they had already stolen more than $1.5 million, and, of course, reminiscent of a Hollywood film, the North Hollywood Shootout was,

00:04:56
Speaker 3: supposed to be their last score.

00:05:00
Speaker 2: Well, I can recount the story from a historical perspective.

00:05:03
Speaker 3: The first officer on,

00:05:04
Speaker 2: the scene was James Ziborvin. So, let’s take a listen to the man himself.

00:05:09
Speaker 4: February 28th, 1997, two months and eight days out of the police academy. I am working with my Field Training Officer, Stuart Guy, and just before 10 a.m., we heard an officer come on the radio that they were traveling southbound on Laurel Canyon Avenue, and off to his left, he saw what he thought was two masked gunmen entering the Bank of America. They were already pushing into the door, and as they’re driving, they kind of looked at each other and said, “Did we just see what we saw?” So, they pull into the south parking lot of the bank, and as they do so, they can hear the gunfire inside the bank. So, they changed their radio broadcast to, “We have a two to eleven, a robbery in progress. Officer needs help at the Bank of America on Laurel Canyon, south of Kittridge.” So, as we were responding Code 3, Stewart says, “Grab the shotgun and have it ready.” So, I reach under, grab the shotgun, and I asked him, “Where do you want me to put this?” While we’re driving, he said, “Roll down your window and point the barrel up towards the sky.” Stewart’s, you know, running through the red lights and turning one of the corners. There was a group of people and a bus bench. 10 to 15 people are standing there. So, I often think back and go, “Wow, I wonder what they thought at the time as they saw this police car screaming down the street and a shotgun pointed up into the sky.” So, we get to the bank, and we’re positioned across the street in this grocery store parking lot. At the same time, there were people coming out of the grocery store, so we were kind of shooing people away and saying, “Get in your car and go. It’s dangerous. Leave.” And it was at about that point when Suspect Number One, Eugene Phillips, exited the southern glass doors to the bank. He looks up, and he sees at the corner of Archwood and Laurel Canyon, Sergeant Deane Haynes and three civilians that are in that intersection looking at the bank. Phillips, armed with an AK-47 with an attached 100-round drum magazine, shoulders the weapon and begins shooting at Sergeant Haynes and the three civilians that are in the intersection. And as he does so, I raise up my 12-gauge shotgun and fire two shotgun blasts at Phillips. I hit him with eight of the shotgun pellets. So, those eight pellets were absorbed into his body armor. One actually flew a little bit low and hit him in the tailbone. He immediately spins around, looking at our direction, locks eyes with me. He lifts up the AK-47 and begins shooting in our direction. I must have remit in the back of my head that Detect Evangelism and Dector Krulek did not have body armour on. I crawled up on top of them in an attempt to shield them, since I did have body armour on, from any incoming rifle fire. It was at that time I was hit a total of four times. Phillips ran out of ammunition. The drum is now empty, which gave us time to get up from the asphalt, and all four of us ran. Seconds later, Phillips reloaded and started shooting at us again. So, we were being peppered with asphalt, shrapnel from the vehicles, glass from the vehicles. So, you could smell the air coming out of the inflated tires, if you anybody remembers pumping up a tire, and you can smell that.

00:08:50
Speaker 1: And you’re listening to Ashley Lebinski and James Aboravan tell the story of the 1991 North Hollywood Shootout, one of the most infamous bank robberies in American history. And imagine just having been there and noticed two guys walking into this bank with ski masks. But for that, this would have never happened. Those two officers called the two to eleven in progress, and, well, the rest is history. When we come back, more of this remarkable story: what happened next in the Bank of America in North Hollywood on Kittridge Road? Here on Our American Stories, and we continue with Our American Stories and with Ashley Levinski and LAPD’s James Zaboravan telling the story of the infamous North Hollywood Shootout. Let’s return to the story.

00:09:53
Speaker 4: The booming and the echoing of the rounds going off—you know, hitting the buildings in the area—that if you didn’t know where the gunfire was coming from, it’d be difficult to find it because it just sounded like it was coming from everywhere. And then being hit with radiator fluid, which, you know, to this day, you smell radiator. I smell radiator fluid, and it takes me back. It’s the third vehicle that we—that Detective Krulac and I—were hiding behind. Detective Krulac is struck in the ankle, and he yells out to me, “Hey, these cars aren’t going to provide us enough cover. Can I run?” And I said, “Sure, where do you want to go?” He puts his hand on my shoulder and nudges me towards the businesses. So, at a full sprint, with the shotgun still in my hands, I run through the parking lot with Detective Krulac behind me, and almost at that full sprint and the shotgun out in front of me, I jump through these glass doors. Well, turns out the glass doors I jump into is a dentist’s office. So, I run up the stairs, and I immediately start banging on the door that’s there, and I says, “I say, is the doctor there? Is the doctor there?” The door opens, and on the other side of the door is Doctor Jorge Montes. He starts picking out the shrapnel and the glass and putting compresses on. You know, there were Aaron rounds coming through the DNIS windows, and what I didn’t know was as Detective Krulac and I ran through that parking lot into the dentist’s office, Suspect Phillips was actually shooting at us. My partner and Detective Angelus actually saw the rounds skipping at our feet like you would on a cartoon, and the sparks flying off the asphalt as we were running. Fortunately, none of those rounds hit us, but at least one of the rounds must have struck the doors that I jumped through and shattered them right before I went through, because I wasn’t cut from any of the glass going through that door. So, it was actually Suspect Phillips’s rounds breaking that, or at least spidering the glass before I jumped through. And it was shortly after that where Stuart was struck three times. Detective Angelus, who was next to him, could have run upstairs and eventually got to safety with us, but she elected to stay down there in that field of fire to keep Stuart company to help prevent him from going into shock. Detective Angelis was hit by shrapnel, and both of them ended up, you know, at hospitals. After that, that same unit eventually comes back and is able to rescue Detective Krulac and myself after I was wounded, and while laying on the ground, getting up, running from car to car, I had fallen back on training from the academy, and in its mindset, one of the last academy guest speakers, if you will, was a Detective Richard Householder. Richard Householder, in November of 1996, discussed the shooting that he was involved with. Working with a partner, they stopped a vehicle that was suspicious. As soon as the officers exited their vehicle, the driver, the suspect, exited and produced a large caliber handgun and started shooting at the officers. Detective Householder was hit in the arm, one in the chest in the ballistic vest, and a gray’s wound to his head. Detective Householder fell to the ground. He didn’t get pushed down by the velocity of the bullets. He just fell to the ground, and that made him angry, and inside he said, “Why am I on the ground? You got to get up, and you have to fight.” He urgently goes to the rear of his vehicle to redeploy, and they’re able to shoot and kill the suspect. And it was actually that portion of the academy that I remembered and kept me going after I was shot. So, over the years, talking to other officers, they’re like, “We can’t believe nobody has written or did a movie on the North Hollywood Shootout.” There was a TV version, and unfortunately, it didn’t reflect what occurred that day. But I replied, “The movie was made before the incident.” They’re like, “What are you talking about?” “Well, remember the movie Heat?” Everybody say, “Oh, yeah, I remember. He that was a great movie.” Well, Heat came out a few years prior and basically mimicked what occurred that day. And here’s why: After all was said and done, you had us—the FBI, Sheriff’s L.A. County Sheriff’s Department—conducted several search warrants over the next few weeks at residences tied to the two suspects. In one of the houses, I believe it was in Hassiend Heights, California, not much anything in there, but there was a TV and a VCR. Well, one of the agents powered on the VCR, and out popped the movie Heat. So, the training that both of those suspects received wasn’t formal. They weren’t in the military, but they watched the movie Heat to learn the tactics. So, that’s how good Heat was. And if for those of you you’ve never seen it, it’s a good watch. And if you look at the tactics employed by the suspects and the police in that movie, were pretty close to real life. And that’s what they did.

00:15:42
Speaker 3: Incredible.

00:15:43
Speaker 4: I like, I am watching this, and I still—I can’t believe it’s happening.

00:15:47
Speaker 2: The LAPD ultimately engaged in this for about 17 minutes of heavy gunfire, and the robbers basically won the first round while the officers were awaiting air units and SWAT teams to show up up. And it gets so bad that the LAPD has to go to a local gun shop known as B&B Sales in the middle of the shootout in order to acquire better weapons to fight Phillips and Mata Serrano.

00:16:16
Speaker 3: At 9:52 a.m., the men split up.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: Phillips took cover behind a truck and continues to fire his rifle at the police until it malfunctions, after which he switches to his handgun, and the officers managed to shoot Phillips in the hand, basically kind of incapacitating him.

00:16:33
Speaker 3: And once he realized that he’s not,

00:16:36
Speaker 2: going to make this out of it, Phillips actually turned the gun on himself and killed himself. Mata Serrano, though, tried to hijack a Jeep, and this is an interesting kind of moment because, you know, you’ve got this kind of really scary bank robber, and he’s coming at a civilian’s Jeep, and he hijacks the Jeep, but the guy who had the car managed to pull the keys out of the car before Mata Serrano got in, so he couldn’t go anywhere. So, he took cover behind the car, and SWAT members started shooting below the car. They thought that they could access a weak point by shooting at his legs, and in total, Mata Serrano was shot 29 times in the leg. And at this point, officers didn’t know whether or not there were any other accomplices. I mean, obviously, there were two men that came out of the bank, but there were rumors that there could have been a third shooter.

00:17:28
Speaker 3: And so since they didn’t,

00:17:30
Speaker 2: know if the situation was secure, they couldn’t let the ambulance come into the space.

00:17:36
Speaker 3: They had to continue to secure the scene.

00:17:38
Speaker 2: So, what ends up happening is Mata Serrano had to basically lie there for 70 minutes as it took the ambulance time to get into the scene, and he succumbed to his injuries. He bled to death, but he didn’t stop screaming profanities at the officers for a lot of that. And this shootout’s interesting because it does almost sound reminiscent of a movie, and it’s ironic that it takes place in North Hollywood, but it is a real turning point in LAPD history, in really police history across the country. And when you think about it, this is a one-hour period with,

00:18:19
Speaker 3: 2,000 rounds being fired.

00:18:22
Speaker 2: Fortunately, other than the robbers, there were no fatalities, but there were many injured. And about a year after the event, 19 officers who were involved in the North Hollywood Shootout received Medals of Valor for their involvement. And the LAPD, and actually, the Pentagon realized that they need more firepower in these situations, and so they ultimately issue the LAPD 600 M16s.

00:18:49
Speaker 3: And if you’re not familiar with an,

00:18:50
Speaker 2: M16, that is a military firearm. It’s a selective-fire gun, meaning it can switch between semi-automatic and automatic.

00:18:59
Speaker 3: That there is an intermediate cartridge.

00:19:01
Speaker 2: So now, instead of a slide-action shotgun, they’re and revolvers. They’re now equipped with similar firepower to what the bank robbers had in order to level the playing field.

00:19:15
Speaker 1: And a terrific job on the editing, production, and storytelling by our own Greg Hangler. A special thanks to Ashley Lebinski and James Aboravan, and my goodness, what a story they told! And isn’t it interesting that th—