The North Hollywood firefight occurred on February 28, 1997, inside the North Hollywood neighbourhood of Los Angeles, California, among two highly armed and armoured bank robbers, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, and personnel of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The almost 2,000 rounds of gunfire shot by the robbers and police killed both bandits, wounded 12 police officers and eight civilians, and damaged or destroyed multiple cars and other property.
Phillips and Mătăsăreanu broke into the Bank of America branch in North Hollywood at 9:17 a.m. and stole it.
When the two thieves departed the bank, LAPD police surrounded them, and a gunfight followed here between cops and the criminals. While attempting to exchange fire well with cops, the bandits attempted to leave the area, Phillips on foot and Mătăsăreanu in their getaway car. The gunfire proceeded onto a residential street adjacent to the bank, where Phillips died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; Mătăsăreanu was disabled by cops three blocks away as well as lost a lot of blood before paramedics arrived more than an hour later.
Phillips and Mătăsăreanu are suspected of robbing at least two more banks by breaking through “bullet-proof” security doors, gaining possession of the whole bank, and shooting guns illegally modified to allow fully automatic fire. They were also suspected of robbing two armoured cars.
Most municipal police officers carried 9mm pistols or.38 Special revolvers as standard issue sidearms at the period, and some patrol vehicles were also outfitted with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Phillips and Mătăsăreanu were armed with a Norinco Type 56 rifle (a Chinese version of the AK-47), a Bushmaster XM-15 Dissipator with a 100-round drum magazine, and a Heckler & Koch HK91 rifle, all of which are being illegally modified to really be select-fire capabilities, as well as a Beretta 92FS handgun. The bandits used handmade body armour that effectively shielded them from the responding cops’ pistol shots and shotgun pellets. A law enforcement SWAT squad came with higher-caliber firearms, but they also had little impact on the two culprits’ thick body armour. In addition, the SWAT squad hijacked an armoured car to transport the injured.