January 2, 2026 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, often, art imitates life. This time, life imitated art. A crime inspired by the 1995 film Heat, starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, would become one of the most infamous bank robberies in American history. The movie’s meticulous depiction of professional criminals, tactical planning, and high-stakes escape scenes provided a blueprint that real-world robbers attempted to follow with deadly consequences. This story examines how Hollywood realism intersected with reality, why Heat became a cult classic among both film enthusiasts and criminals, and how a work of fiction contributed to shaping a true crime moment that stunned the nation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
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 Laws Firearms Research Center. Here's Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
One of the most infamous bank robberies in American history
occurred on February twenty eighth of nineteen ninety seven, and
at ten oh one am, 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
(00:58):
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 twenty eighth
at nine to seventeen am, armed with automatic and semi
(01:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
And a semi.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Automatic firearm means that every time you press the trigger,
it fires one round. So these bank roppers had automatic
and semi automatic firearms. They had three thousand rounds of
ammunition and full body armor with them and their names
were Larry Phillips Junior and a Romanian immigrant, Emil Mattis Serrano,
(01:55):
and they entered the Bank of America in.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
North Hollywood, California.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
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
six minutes. But the robbery actually doesn't go as planned
and it takes them a total of ten minutes before exiting,
(02:22):
and this is one of those kind of experiences where
four minutes really changed everything.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Ever, the men entered the.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
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 they 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
(02:54):
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 were 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 eight hundred
thousand dollars, but what they were surprised to see was
(03:16):
that there were only three hundred and three thousand dollars
available at the time, which is done a lot of money,
but if you're expecting eight hundred thousand, I guess you're
gonna be a little disappointed, and they definitely were, because
in anger, Mata Serrano actually emptied a fifty round drum
magazine into the vault and.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Destroyed the rest of the money.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
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.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Them four minutes. What they're also not aware.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
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 Manta Serrano
were actually known to the police before this bank robbery.
Phillips was a career criminal and Manta Serrano was a
Romanian immigrant, and they met at all places the gym
(04:10):
because Manta 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 nineteen ninety three, they were actually
pulled over for speeding and in their vehicle officers found
two semi automatic rifles, two pistols, twelve hundred rounds of ammunition,
(04:34):
smoke bombs, explosives, and body armor. And as a result
of this fine Phillips and Mata Serrano spent ninety nine
and seventy one 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
one point five million dollars and, of course, reminiscent of
a Hollywood film, the North Hollywood shootout was.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Supposed to be their last score.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Well, I can recount the story from a historical perspective.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
The first officer on.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The scene was James Ziborvin, So let's take a listen
to the man himself.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
February twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, two months and eight
days out of the police academy. I am working with
my field training officer, Stuart Guy, and just before ten am,
we heard an officer come on the radio that they
were traveling southbound on Laurel Canyon Avenue and off to
(05:30):
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
(05:52):
their radio broadcast to we have a two to eleven
or a robbery in progress. Officer needs help at the
Bank of America on Laurel Canyon south of Kitridge. So
as we were responding Code three, Stewart says, grab the
shotgun and have it ready. So I reach under grab
the shotgun, and I asked him where do you want
(06:13):
me to put this While we're driving, said roll down
your window and point the barrel up towards the sky. Stuart's,
you know, running through the red lights and turning one
of the corners. There was a group of people and
a bus bench. Ten to fifteen people are standing there.
So I often think back and go, wow, I wonder
what they thought at the time as they see this
(06:34):
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 was people coming
out of the grocery store, so we were kind of
shooting people away and saying get in your car and go,
it's dangerous. Leave. And it was at about that point
(06:57):
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 Lurel Canyon Sergeant Deane
Haynes and three civilians that are in that intersection looking
at the bank. Phillips, armed with an AK forty seven
(07:19):
with an attached one hundred 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 twelve gage shotgun and fire two
shotgun blasts at Phillips. I hit him with eight of
(07:40):
the shotgun pellets, so those eight pellets is 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 forty seven and begins shooting in our direction.
I must have remit in the back of my head
(08:01):
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 total of four times, Phillips
(08:23):
runs 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're being peppered with asphalt,
shrapnel from the vehicles, glass from the vehicles. So you
(08:43):
could smell the air coming out of the inflated tires
if you anybody remembers pump up a tire and you
can smell that.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And you're listening to Ashley Lebinski and James Aboravan tell
the story of the nineteen ninety one 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,
(09:10):
this would have never happened. Those two officers called the
two 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
(09:39):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
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 gun fre 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.
(10:14):
It's the third vehicle that we that Detective Krulac and
I were hiding behind. Detective Krulak 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
(10:37):
towards the businesses. So at a full sprint, with the
shotgun still in my hands, run through the parking lot
with Detective kru Lac 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 office. So
(11:01):
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
(11:21):
know was as Detective Cruela and I ran through that
parking lot into the dentist 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
(11:44):
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 Phillip's rounds breaking that or at least spidering
the glass before I jumped through. And it was shortly
(12:07):
after that where Stuart was struck three times. Detective Angelus,
who was next to him, could have ran 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.
(12:29):
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
Krulak and myself after I was wounded and while laying
(12:50):
on the ground getting up running from car to car,
I had fell back on training from the Academy and
in its mindset and one of the last Academy guest speakers,
if you will, was a Detective Richard Householder. Richard Householder
in November of nineteen ninety six, discussed the shooting that
(13:12):
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
(13:32):
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.
(13:52):
He origently goes to the rear of his vehicle to redeploys,
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
(14:16):
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
(14:38):
occurred that day. And here's why. After all was said
and done, you had us The FBI, Sheriff's LA 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.
(15:02):
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
(15:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Incredible.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
I like, I am watching this and I still I
can't believe it's happening.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
The LAPD ultimately engaged in this for about seventeen minutes
of heavy gunfire, and the robbers basically win the first
round while the officers are 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 and B Sales in the middle
(16:08):
of the shootout in order to acquire better weapons to
fight Phillips and mat Serrano.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
At nine to fifty two am, the men split up.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Phillips takes 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.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
And once he realizes that he's not.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Going to make this out of it, Phillips actually turns
the gun on himself and kills himself. Mat Serrano, though,
tries 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
(16:57):
who had the car managed to pull the keys out
of the car before Manta 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, Manta Serrano was shot twenty
nine times in the leg and at this point officers
(17:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And so since they didn't.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Know if the situation was secure, they couldn't let the
ambulance come into the space.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
They had to continue to secure the scene.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
So what ends up happening is Monta Serrano has to
basically lay there for seventy minutes as it took the
ambulance time to get into the scene, and he succumbs
to his injuries. He bleeds to death, but he doesn't
stop screaming profinities at the officers for a lot of
that in this shootouts interesting because it does almost sound
(18:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Two thousand rounds being fired.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Fortunately, other than the robbers, there were no fatalities, but
there were many injured, and about a year after the event,
nineteen officers who were involved in the North Hollywood shootout
received Medals of Valor for their involvement and the LAPD
And actually, the Pentagon realizes that they need more firepower
(18:42):
in these situations, and so they ultimately issue the LAPD
six hundred M sixteens.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And if you're not familiar with an.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
M sixteen, that is a military firearm. It's a selective
fire gun, meaning it can switch between semi automatic and automatic.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That there is an intermediate cartridge.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So now instead of a slne 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.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
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 though the cops
got their training at the police academy, the robbers got
their training from the movie Heat and Well, you can't
(19:36):
make that one up. And it changed police history because
in the end, the cops needed to be armed with
similar types of weapons, and it turned out that would
be M sixteen's to combat the ever escalating nature of
firepower on the criminal side. And by the way, if
you haven't seen the movie Heat, see it. It's just
(19:56):
terrific Pacino Engineero in a movie, in a scene to
get the only time it ever happened in both actors' lives.
The story behind the story of the infamous North Hollywood
Bank of America shootout and bank robber. Here on our
American Stories.
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 Laws Firearms Research Center. Here's Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
One of the most infamous bank robberies in American history
occurred on February twenty eighth of nineteen ninety seven, and
at ten oh one am, 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
(00:58):
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 twenty eighth
at nine to seventeen am, armed with automatic and semi
(01:19):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
And a semi.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Automatic firearm means that every time you press the trigger,
it fires one round. So these bank roppers had automatic
and semi automatic firearms. They had three thousand rounds of
ammunition and full body armor with them and their names
were Larry Phillips Junior and a Romanian immigrant, Emil Mattis Serrano,
(01:55):
and they entered the Bank of America in.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
North Hollywood, California.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
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
six minutes. But the robbery actually doesn't go as planned
and it takes them a total of ten minutes before exiting,
(02:22):
and this is one of those kind of experiences where
four minutes really changed everything.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Ever, the men entered the.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
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 they 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
(02:54):
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 were 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 eight hundred
thousand dollars, but what they were surprised to see was
(03:16):
that there were only three hundred and three thousand dollars
available at the time, which is done a lot of money,
but if you're expecting eight hundred thousand, I guess you're
gonna be a little disappointed, and they definitely were, because
in anger, Mata Serrano actually emptied a fifty round drum
magazine into the vault and.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Destroyed the rest of the money.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
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.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Them four minutes. What they're also not aware.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
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 Manta Serrano
were actually known to the police before this bank robbery.
Phillips was a career criminal and Manta Serrano was a
Romanian immigrant, and they met at all places the gym
(04:10):
because Manta 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 nineteen ninety three, they were actually
pulled over for speeding and in their vehicle officers found
two semi automatic rifles, two pistols, twelve hundred rounds of ammunition,
(04:34):
smoke bombs, explosives, and body armor. And as a result
of this fine Phillips and Mata Serrano spent ninety nine
and seventy one 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
one point five million dollars and, of course, reminiscent of
a Hollywood film, the North Hollywood shootout was.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Supposed to be their last score.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Well, I can recount the story from a historical perspective.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
The first officer on.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The scene was James Ziborvin, So let's take a listen
to the man himself.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
February twenty eighth, nineteen ninety seven, two months and eight
days out of the police academy. I am working with
my field training officer, Stuart Guy, and just before ten am,
we heard an officer come on the radio that they
were traveling southbound on Laurel Canyon Avenue and off to
(05:30):
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
(05:52):
their radio broadcast to we have a two to eleven
or a robbery in progress. Officer needs help at the
Bank of America on Laurel Canyon south of Kitridge. So
as we were responding Code three, Stewart says, grab the
shotgun and have it ready. So I reach under grab
the shotgun, and I asked him where do you want
(06:13):
me to put this While we're driving, said roll down
your window and point the barrel up towards the sky. Stuart's,
you know, running through the red lights and turning one
of the corners. There was a group of people and
a bus bench. Ten to fifteen people are standing there.
So I often think back and go, wow, I wonder
what they thought at the time as they see this
(06:34):
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 was people coming
out of the grocery store, so we were kind of
shooting people away and saying get in your car and go,
it's dangerous. Leave. And it was at about that point
(06:57):
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 Lurel Canyon Sergeant Deane
Haynes and three civilians that are in that intersection looking
at the bank. Phillips, armed with an AK forty seven
(07:19):
with an attached one hundred 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 twelve gage shotgun and fire two
shotgun blasts at Phillips. I hit him with eight of
(07:40):
the shotgun pellets, so those eight pellets is 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 forty seven and begins shooting in our direction.
I must have remit in the back of my head
(08:01):
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 total of four times, Phillips
(08:23):
runs 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're being peppered with asphalt,
shrapnel from the vehicles, glass from the vehicles. So you
(08:43):
could smell the air coming out of the inflated tires
if you anybody remembers pump up a tire and you
can smell that.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And you're listening to Ashley Lebinski and James Aboravan tell
the story of the nineteen ninety one 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,
(09:10):
this would have never happened. Those two officers called the
two 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
(09:39):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
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 gun fre 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.
(10:14):
It's the third vehicle that we that Detective Krulac and
I were hiding behind. Detective Krulak 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
(10:37):
towards the businesses. So at a full sprint, with the
shotgun still in my hands, run through the parking lot
with Detective kru Lac 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 office. So
(11:01):
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
(11:21):
know was as Detective Cruela and I ran through that
parking lot into the dentist 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
(11:44):
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 Phillip's rounds breaking that or at least spidering
the glass before I jumped through. And it was shortly
(12:07):
after that where Stuart was struck three times. Detective Angelus,
who was next to him, could have ran 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.
(12:29):
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
Krulak and myself after I was wounded and while laying
(12:50):
on the ground getting up running from car to car,
I had fell back on training from the Academy and
in its mindset and one of the last Academy guest speakers,
if you will, was a Detective Richard Householder. Richard Householder
in November of nineteen ninety six, discussed the shooting that
(13:12):
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
(13:32):
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.
(13:52):
He origently goes to the rear of his vehicle to redeploys,
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
(14:16):
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
(14:38):
occurred that day. And here's why. After all was said
and done, you had us The FBI, Sheriff's LA 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.
(15:02):
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
(15:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Incredible.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
I like, I am watching this and I still I
can't believe it's happening.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
The LAPD ultimately engaged in this for about seventeen minutes
of heavy gunfire, and the robbers basically win the first
round while the officers are 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 and B Sales in the middle
(16:08):
of the shootout in order to acquire better weapons to
fight Phillips and mat Serrano.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
At nine to fifty two am, the men split up.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Phillips takes 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.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
And once he realizes that he's not.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Going to make this out of it, Phillips actually turns
the gun on himself and kills himself. Mat Serrano, though,
tries 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
(16:57):
who had the car managed to pull the keys out
of the car before Manta 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, Manta Serrano was shot twenty
nine times in the leg and at this point officers
(17:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And so since they didn't.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Know if the situation was secure, they couldn't let the
ambulance come into the space.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
They had to continue to secure the scene.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
So what ends up happening is Monta Serrano has to
basically lay there for seventy minutes as it took the
ambulance time to get into the scene, and he succumbs
to his injuries. He bleeds to death, but he doesn't
stop screaming profinities at the officers for a lot of
that in this shootouts interesting because it does almost sound
(18:02):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Two thousand rounds being fired.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Fortunately, other than the robbers, there were no fatalities, but
there were many injured, and about a year after the event,
nineteen officers who were involved in the North Hollywood shootout
received Medals of Valor for their involvement and the LAPD
And actually, the Pentagon realizes that they need more firepower
(18:42):
in these situations, and so they ultimately issue the LAPD
six hundred M sixteens.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And if you're not familiar with an.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
M sixteen, that is a military firearm. It's a selective
fire gun, meaning it can switch between semi automatic and automatic.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That there is an intermediate cartridge.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
So now instead of a slne 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.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
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 though the cops
got their training at the police academy, the robbers got
their training from the movie Heat and Well, you can't
(19:36):
make that one up. And it changed police history because
in the end, the cops needed to be armed with
similar types of weapons, and it turned out that would
be M sixteen's to combat the ever escalating nature of
firepower on the criminal side. And by the way, if
you haven't seen the movie Heat, see it. It's just
(19:56):
terrific Pacino Engineero in a movie, in a scene to
get the only time it ever happened in both actors' lives.
The story behind the story of the infamous North Hollywood
Bank of America shootout and bank robber. Here on our
American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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