The Bank Robbery That Changed American Policing Forever

On the morning of February 28th, 1997, a fleet of news helicopters rushed to a bank in an otherwise quiet neighborhood of northern Los Angeles. They pointed their cameras toward the parking lot below, broadcasting live to millions of people. Unreal.

Heavily armed men firing away with no apparent fear or care for human life. On the ground, a routine bank heist was turning into one of the most violent shootouts in American history. Two bank robbers were engaged in heavy gunfire against hundreds of LAPD officers.

They were outnumbered badly, but they were not outgunned. The bank robbers came armed with multiple fully automatic rifles, thousands of highcaliber rounds, and enough body armor to render the LAPD's weapons virtually useless. That morning, they turned Los Angeles into a war zone, altering the course of American policing.

forever. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Larry Phillips Jr. came from a long line of criminals.

His grandfather robbed trains. His father robbed graves. And in the years to come, he would become one of the most infamous bank robbers in American history.

But his criminal career didn't start with high-profile heists. In 1984, after dropping out of high school, Larry began training to become a bodybuilder at Gold's Gym in Pasadena. But he quickly realized he didn't have the genetics to compete at the highest level and began looking for a new path.

To look the part of a successful businessman, Larry tried to steal some suits, but he was arrested. Once out of jail, he earned a living as a real estate agent, but he couldn't resist easy money. So, occasionally, he ran small property scams to defraud his clients.

But the real turning point in his criminal career likely happened back at Gold's Gym, where presumably he met his partner in crime. Emil Mataseranu immigrated from Romania to Los Angeles in 1976. Born with a rare heart condition, exercising was practically impossible.

In my high school, he weighed 350 lb. The relentless bullying made him bitter, withdrawn, and angry. But in 1989, Emile set out to lose some weight and signed up to Gold's Gym in Pasadena, the same gym where Larry trained.

It's unclear if this is really where they first met. But whatever the case, Larry saw something in Emil. For one, they both shared a passion for firearms.

And although Larry had more experience in this department, Emil showed a growing interest in crime. Larry was already pulling off small-scale property scams. But now that he was friends with Emil, they began working together on more ambitious projects.

And they weren't the only ones. In 1991, there were 9,388 bank robberies across the United States. One in every four of those, 2,355 to be exact, happened just here in the Los Angeles metro area.

The next year, that number rose to [Music] 2,641. That's one robbery for every 45 minutes that a bank was open. Now, at the time, bank robberies were unsophisticated, generally not violent, and the perpetrators only profited between $1,500 and $2,000 on average.

However, they had become such an epidemic that banks began hiring armed security guards, using exploding die packs and trackers, implementing surveillance, randomized cash delivery schedules, and storing cash in individually locked compartments. At the same time, the government cracked down by raising the minimum sentence for bank robbery to 25 years. And it worked.

By 1995, bank robberies in LA had more than half. But this also had an unintended side effect. It didn't stop the most determined criminals.

It just forced them to adapt. With higher stakes and more obstacles, heists became more carefully planned, more ambitious, and much more violent. Criminals began aiming for much bigger scores.

And if it meant avoiding 25 years in prison, they were willing to use hostage situations, intimidation tactics, militaryra weapons, and even deadly force. Larry Phillips and Emil Mataseranu were among this new breed of criminals. It's hard to say exactly when they committed their first armed robbery together.

Some investigators believe that between 1990 and 1992, they carried out some small-cale heists, small businesses, convenience stores, even a few cash couriers. Nothing too big, but enough to gain experience. When you're starting a business, it's no different.

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Their first confirmed major robbery came in 1993 when they ambushed an armored car escaping with tens of thousands of dollars. It was a perfect job and it showed them that they could pull off something much bigger. But 3 months later, their luck ran out.

One day while driving in a rented car, Larry and Emil were pulled over for speeding. It should have been a routine traffic stop, but Emil panicked and told the officer the car belonged to quote, "Dennis's mom. " Dennis was Larry's fake name.

So, of course, when the officer ran the plates and the records didn't match their story, he arrested them. Inside the car, the officer found two rifles, two handguns, 3,000 rounds of ammunition, smoke bombs, police scanners, IEDs, three fake license plates, and two sets of full body armor. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were up to.

So, both Larry and Emil got a short jail sentence for conspiracy to commit robbery. But more importantly, their gear was confiscated. And now as convicted felons, they could no longer legally own guns.

This would have been the end for most criminals. But if anything, Larry and Emil's heists just got bigger, more complex, and much more violent. In 1995, they crossed a new line, killing a security guard to rob an armored vehicle.

By 1996, they had all but perfected the military-style robbery, robbing two Bank of America branches with overwhelming firepower in and out within minutes, walking away with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, they were ready for the biggest, but ultimately most disastrous job of their careers. By 1997, Larry and Emil had nailed down their next target, the Bank of America branch on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, the largest in North Hollywood.

The location was perfect. The bank sat right beside a highway with parking lots on both sides, giving them options for a getaway. To the west, there was a busy shopping mall full of civilians, potential human shields, which would make police think twice before opening fire.

And to the east, there was a quiet residential neighborhood with streets that could serve as escape routes. To prepare, they collected over 3,000 rounds of ammunition and enough weapons to outfit a small army. Three fully automatic Norco Type 56 rifles, Chinese-made AK-47s fitted with 100 round drum magazines, a Bushmaster XM15 dissipator, a smaller variant of the M16 modified for fully automatic fire, and finally an HK91 battle rifle, perfect for longer distance combat.

Beneath their clothes, they wore Kevlar vests and heavy steel plates on their chest and back. Larry went a step further, wrapping his groin, arms, and legs in makeshift Kevlar padding. By comparison, the average LAPD officer at the time wore this uniform and carried three 15 round magazines for a Beretta M92FS, which fires 9mm rounds.

This is what they look like compared to an HK91's bullets. Needless to say, a Beretta wasn't going to do much. But as a last resort, even Larry and Emil brought one.

Their plan was simple. Enter the bank, keep the civilians under control, forced the teller to open the vault, stuff as much cash as possible into their bags, and walk out before the LAPD could even get there. 8 minutes in and out.

It would go down on a Friday morning when the bank's vault would be restocked with cash. Larry and Emil expected to walk away with at least $750,000. This wasn't a reckless lastminute job.

It was the result of years of careful planning, perfecting every detail and preparing for every possible scenario. But when the day finally came, nothing went according to plan. [Music] At 9:16 a.

m. , Larry and Emil stepped out of a white Chevrolet Celebrity in the north parking lot of the Bank of America on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. They had just taken a pheninoarbatital, a medication typically used to prevent seizures, but they were using it to calm their nerves.

They planned this heist in meticulous detail and sewn watch faces into their gear to time it perfectly. If everything went to plan, they'd be in and out in just 8 minutes. However, just as they were reaching the front door, Larry spotted a patrol car driving past Laurel Canyon.

He wasn't sure if the officers had seen him, so he continued with their plan. Now, we got a 211 in progress at Bank of America Laurel Canyon. Two armed suspects, full tactical gear.

While the LAPD made their way to the scene, Larry grabbed a man using an ATM inside the bank, threw him to the floor, and fired into the ceiling. At the same time, Emil shut the lock off the teller security door, and shoved the assistant manager towards the vault. But that's when he ran into an issue.

Instead of a single massive vault, the bank had many individual lock boxes, each needing its own separate key. And to make things worse, the cash delivery they thought was scheduled every Friday morning had been randomized to increase security. This would make the heist slower and much less profitable.

3 minutes in, Larry left a meal in the vault and stepped outside the bank. If those cops had seen him coming in, they could be in trouble. When he looked south, he saw them waiting in the mall across the street.

The LAPD was already on their way. This was going to get ugly. 8 minutes in, Emil had managed to stuff his duffel bag with $33,35 and unknown to him, three die packs.

On the outside, more than 20 LAPD officers had already taken defensive positions around the bank, covering the entire north and west sides. That's when Larry stepped outside again, raised his AK-47, and opened fire. All of a sudden, a violent gunfight had erupted in the middle of a busy road.

The policemen took cover and tried to shoot back. Sometimes they even hit Larry directly, but from over 200 ft away, their 9 mm rounds were practically useless against his body armor. Meanwhile, his AK could pierce through cars and even some walls.

For four straight minutes, Larry stood in the open, spraying hundreds of rounds across Laurel Canyon. Then, Emil stepped out to join him. Together, they wounded multiple officers and even some civilians.

But eventually, they had to make a run for it. First, Larry made a break to the parking lot while Emil lay down covering fire. And once he found a good position, he did the same.

However, moments after Emil stepped outside the bank, the three die packs hidden inside his duffel bag exploded. And just as he was nearing the parking lot, an officer managed to graze him with a bullet just above the eye. At this point, six news helicopters were hovering above the bank.

One of them captured Emil touching his head and leaving a bloody print on the hood of a car. When he told Larry about the die packs, Larry assumed that the money had been stained. And in a snap decision, he left the bag behind.

In reality, since the cash was still wrapped in plastic, most of it was fine. But either way, this heist wasn't about money anymore. It was about survival.

It is unclear why Larry and Emil did not attempt to drive away at this point. They may have thought their escape routes were blocked, or they may have just chosen to fight until the end. But for the next 20 minutes, while Emil recovered from his wound, Larry was in a gunfight against hundreds of LAPD officers, all on his own.

During this, he was hit at least three more times, including once in the side of his torso, where there was a gap in his body armor. And yet Larry kept on fighting. He was probably too high on adrenaline and pheninoarbatital to notice.

Eventually Larry ran out of ammunition for his AK, so he ran to their car, picked up the HK91, and resumed the shooting. While he was close to a meal, Larry tried to tell him something, but he was interrupted by a direct shot to his left arm. Frustrated, Larry started firing at a news helicopter recording him from afar, but thankfully he missed every shot.

The injury had left him unable to hold his rifle properly. Now he had to rest it on his forearm, which ruined his aim. The situation was already bad, but to make it worse, their car now had two flat tires from all the shooting.

Despite this, Emil started driving off slowly, shooting officers through the window while Larry followed him on the ground. While this was happening, Larry's body armor blocked three more shots. But one bullet did strike the front of his HK91's magazine well, denting it and jamming it beyond repair.

When Larry tried to reload, the magazine was stuck. This was the moment that sealed Larry's fate. Now he had to discard the HK91 and switched to the third AK-47 he had brought.

But because it was illegally modified, this weapon was malfunctioning after every few shots. In order to fix it, Larry had to remove and reinsert the magazine every time. Emile was now desperate to escape.

He opened the passenger door for Larry to get inside, but for some reason, he refused. Larry slammed the door shut and kept using the car for cover while Emil drove beside him. Eventually, they reached the north parking lot's exit and turned into the residential neighborhood east of the bank.

Here, there was an abandoned police cruiser and semitr where Larry took cover. Emile stayed on the road, driving slowly and expecting Larry to hop into the car soon, but he had moved to the other side of the truck. Neither one of them could see where the other was.

When an officer fired at Emil, he sped toward the front of the semi-truck and didn't find Larry. He had returned to the back, expecting Emil to be there still. But no, some officers were already inside the neighborhood, and Emil had to speed forward in order to avoid them.

From now on, Larry and Emil were completely on their own. At this point, Larry was caught between a semi-truck, a tall wooden fence, and two groups of police officers with only a faulty AK-47 and a Beretta M92FS strapped to his left shoulder. As he kept exchanging fire with police, he was shot twice in the back.

One bullet struck his body armor, but the second missed the plating and hit his subclavian artery, causing severe bleeding and some serious pain. Because of this, Larry panicked. When his AK-47 jammed again, instead of simply reinserting the magazine, which would have fixed the issue, he repeatedly pulled the charging handle, jamming a bullet inside and making it impossible to fix.

Larry realized he was out of options and he desperately took cover under the semitr, but the police officers had a clear line of sight on him and they forced him out with two more shots. Severely injured, losing blood and likely demoralized, Larry crawled out from under the truck, pulled his Beretta from his shoulder holster, and fired one-handed at police. But the officers returned fire and hit Larry's hand, causing him to drop the gun.

it was over. While this was happening, LA SWAT team arrived on the scene and began commandeering police vehicles to look for a meal. He was deep inside the neighborhood driving a Chevrolet Celebrity with two flat tires and a leaky gas tank.

Going back for Larry was simply not an option anymore. But if Emil wanted to escape, he needed a new vehicle. While finding his way through the neighborhood, Emil forced a car to stop in front of him.

But the driver, seeing a masked juggernaut emerging from a bullet-ridden car, understandably kept backing up. When Emil pointed his AK at him, he turned around and sped away. Emile stayed on the move looking for other vehicles.

And this time, when he came across a pickup truck, he didn't negotiate. Instead, he fired his AK through their two windshields, breaking glass into the driver's face and grazing his head with a bullet. Thankfully, the driver reacted quickly and abandoned the truck in the middle of the road with the door open.

Immediately, Emil parked his Chevy beside it, tossed his remaining gear on the bed, and climbed into the driver's seat. But when he tried to start the car, he couldn't. The driver had taken out the keys from the ignition, so he crouched down and tried to jump start it.

While he was doing this though, Emil was spotted by a SWAT team who parked right beside him. Emil jumped out of the truck just in time, seconds before bullets started tearing through the driver's seat. He took cover again behind the Chevy and began spraying the SWAT team with bullets.

Whenever they found a moment to fire back, his body armor kept him safe. This went on for the next 2 and 1/2 minutes, but eventually Emil ran out of ammunition for his AK-47, so he had to take a few seconds to grab his XM15 dissipator from the back of the pickup truck. This gave the SWAT team a few moments to breathe and one of the officers noticed a gap between the tires of the three vehicles.

He had an angle on Emil's legs and they were unprotected. When Emil started firing again, the officer laid down on the ground and took a precise shot, hitting Emil in the calf. Then he took another one and another one.

Emile had taken multiple direct hits to the legs, but he was still fighting back. In fact, he laid down on the ground himself and started shooting the SWAT team, too. But this was his final mistake because immediately a bullet struck his arm and he dropped his XM15.

Now unarmed, Emile raised his hands and surrendered. Unfortunately, for a few moments, the SWAT officers were behind cover and unaware that Emil had surrendered. So they continued firing, hitting his legs several more times.

Eventually though, they ceased fire and put Emil on his stomach. Concerned that Emil might have a bomb or another weapon, one officer pressed his rifle against the back of Emil's head to prevent him from moving. The front of the barrel was so hot from all the firing that it seared Emil's skin.

Larry was dead, and now Emil was finally in handcuffs. But the LAPD had received over 17 calls of different incidents from within the neighborhood. So at this point, they suspected that a third gunman was still at large.

Because of this, officers refused to move Emile. And even when a group of medics got to the scene, the officers told them to go away. And so Emil stayed there in the middle of the road with barbituates in his system, thinning his blood.

After 56 minutes, he bled out because of the bullet wounds in his legs. The area remained on lockdown until the LAPD concluded that there was never a third gunman. At 11:30 p.

m. , North Hollywood shootout came to an end. That day, over 300 LAPD and SWAT officers responded to the scene.

12 of them, along with eight civilians, were wounded. At least 11 bullets made contact with Larry's skin, and Emil had 29 bullet wounds in his legs, plus one in the forehead, but their armor absorbed countless hits. More than 2,000 bullets were fired in those 44 minutes, making it almost a miracle that there were only two casualties, Larry Phillips Jr.

and Emil Mataseranu. After the shootout, the LAPD began an investigation into Larry and Emil. They discovered more rifles, ammunition, armor, and even a makeshift bomb making site.

At the time, most officers carried only 9mm pistols or 38 caliber revolvers and a shotgun, which were not effective at long range and could not penetrate body armor. Because of this, there was already some debate about whether police forces should be better armed. But few steps have been taken to realize this.

Most of the North Hollywood shootout was captured on camera by reporters and news helicopters. When millions of people watched two heavily armed criminals taking on hundreds of LAPD and SWAT officers live on television, it became abundantly clear. American police forces were severely underequipped and it was time for change.

Listen to this. Early on in this gunfire, the uh officers apparently were outgunned, so they resorted to nearby gun stores to go in there and find more powerful weapons. They actually borrowed weapons from a gun store.

As a result, sweeping reforms regarding equipment and tactics took place in police departments all across the United States. They began issuing AR-15s and other longrange semi-automatic rifles, as well as improved ammunition. In some extreme cases, they even authorized the use of armor-piercing rounds.

Officers body armor was also improved with some departments adopting metal or ceramic trauma plates and even ballistic helmets like those used by SWAT teams. Although this incident was not the sole cause of police militarization, it was a major turning point. Today, American police forces are far better prepared for situations like the North Hollywood shootout.

Let's hope nothing like it happens ever again. But if it does, they're ready.