Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised

we delve deep into one of the most intense and infamous events in American law enforcement history—the North Hollywood Shootout.

On February 28, 1997, the streets of Los Angeles turned into a war zone as two heavily armed and armored bank robbers engaged in a brutal standoff with police officers.

For 44 minutes, the robbers unleashed over 1,100 rounds of ammunition, causing chaos and panic in broad daylight.

the north hollywood  shoutout  is a story  of a bank robbery that went very ,very  wrong.

a surrealist holdup worthy of a movie scene or worthy of an open world video game…

Los Angeles  1997.

what happened in los angeles on the morning morning of february 28th was actually real, that day two stout and heavily armed men decided to carry out  an extremely brutal robbery.

a completely botched theft that  would soon turn into a huge shooting.

two robbers against almost 400 policemen including SWAT members all in the middle of los angeles and broadcasted live on television.

with  an impressive aresnal of illegally modified  guns the two robbers will indeed shoot anything that moves to try to get away from the crime scene.

civilians or policemen,nobody is safe from the armor -piercing bullets coming from everywhere.

some of their war weapons shoot 10 bullets per second a simply staggering and insane firepower for a bank robbery.

on the other side the police having only handguns and shotsguns with the weak range to compete with  try to keep the bandits at bay.

but the bullets they shoot only tickle them,because adding to their war weapons the  robbers also  are equipped with bulletproof protection from head to toe.

 larry philips Jr and emil matasareanu are the two who were behind this insane robbery.

two guys keen on guns and bodybuilding who met at the gym in 1989.

to then form a friendship rooted in hatred of socety two determined robbers who didn’t seem to be afraid of death

and who during almost  an hour spread a climate of terror…

in los angeles.

we still don’t know whether they came to rob a bank or make war.

what is sure they committed one of the most brutal robberies in  history.

so brutal that it is known today under the name of :

THE NORTH HOLLYWOOD SHOOUTOUT.

 

thinking back to bank robberies In the USA , we think of the 1930s in a the area of the john dillinger,baby face  nelson, pretty boy floyd and bonnie and clyde.

a period in american history where armed robbery was flourishing.

the great depression struck the US hard, creating an atmosphere of economic distress that led more and more people to turn to  robbery.

as a result the number of bank  robberies increased dramatically  to the point where  some people refer to these years:

as the golden age of bank robbery.

but fortunately this trend was put on hold after a while  and following decades were rather quiet in terms of armed robbery.

the authorities had managed to put a stop to this incredible rise in crime we though t it was all a thing of the past.

but not at all,since bank robberies would make a resurgence from the 1960s  onwards more precisely between 1965 and 1975 when armed robberies climbed from 850 to almost 3,500 per year.

a spectacular rise you may say but it didn’t stop there…

yes , because the trend  continued into the 70s and 80s with 5,500 robberies in 19 85  alone.

the curve  then kept climbing reaching even more insane figures in the following decade with almost 7,900 robberies in 1990  and 9.388 the year after.

a real epidemic of  armed robbery with this epicenter in the far west of the united  states – los angeles the city thatt has become known as the national capital  of bank robbery.

an  unenviable title we may when it comes to attracting tourists we’ve  seen better but believe me ,the city  of angels  deserved this distinction,in fact  you only have to look at te crime rates at the time to understand.

1991  recorded over 9.300  robberies,the quarter of that staggering figure came from  los angeles county alone.

2355  robberies in that single year, worse it’s not even the highest total the city  has ever recorded.

because we still have 1992 when the peak was reached this time with 2,641 armed robberies that’s roughly  seven bank robberies a day.

or one  every working hour.

just  imagine , moreover there were so many of them  in the 80s and 90s that  hollywood took an interest in the phenomenon producing  some of the greatest bank robbery films set in southern california. point break actually ,released in 1991

and  above all the benchmark in bank robbery films released in 1995 Heat.

at the time los angeles was suffering from an ever increasing  number of robberies  if the rates were alarming what was even more  so was the brutal violence with which gangsters operated during these armed robberies.

most of them were equipped as if  they were going to war, machine guns, assault rifles,bulletproof  vests.

it seemed that with this new  wave of robbers the end justified the means and nothing  could stop them from steeling the loot.

they had set their sights on so much  so in fact that some thought that if they had to kill they would.

what turned bank robberies into  recurrently violent operations in  los angeles was that  famous robbery on september 5th 1991.

1991

on this particular day ,two men  ,members of a bank robbery gang  well known  to the police as the west hills bandits, enter a wells fargo branch in  the Tarzana district of los angeles.

heavily armed and wearing  masks they paradoxically demonstrate a disconcerting civility when it comes to robbery.

they gather customers and emplyees together telling them quite naturally” enjoy the show”.

in less  than 2 minutes the establishment is robbed, true professionals there was no doubt about it and courteous too  since as they left their premises they gave the hostages  a cheerful” thanks everyone”.

the two robbers left , thrilled with  quite a hall in their  their pockets $437,000  a record loot for the los angeles jurisdiction  at the time.

which would alas be mistakenly revealed to the general public  by a bank employee because it was from that moment  on that things really took turn for the worse.

for among those tipped off were some of the city’s criminals who were already  licking their chops when they heard  how much had been stolen ,they now  had proof that it was possible to make large sums of money by robbing banks in los angeles.

such was the case with robert sheldonbrown aka casper a prominent member of the Crips gang who figured  that robberies might indeed be a good  business idea.

within weeks he sent a doxens of armed teenage gangs  to rob the city’s banks, these kids often young as 13.

unlike the west hills bandits  who were polite and meticulous, these kids were nervous undisciplined and above all extremely violent.

the baby bandits as the FBI came to call them would appear in the banks firing bursts of bullets at the ceiling,when it wasn’t at themselves or their accomplices.

when they attacked no one was spared sometimes tellers were needlessly  beaten with rifle butts or hostage customers had their wedding rings brutally ripped from their fingers  by the baby bandits.

so of course their amateurism disserved them to the point they were captured in droves by the authorities.

but the more they wer captured the more casper sent new new ones teenage gangsters were a common sight  and casper was never short staffed.

so thanks to his harmy of baby bandits he was able to commit over 175 robberies more than  any other person  in US history and not take part in any of them.

if  los angeles earned the title of  bank robbery capital in the 90s you can be sure it was largely due to him.

just  like the sudden rise in violence committed during these  same holdups at the time  and even though robert sheldon brown would later be arrested others would follow in his footsteps…

like these two young men who had no doubt watched too much “heat” and who in turn tried their hand at bank robbery with equally extreme and gratuitous violence.

two guys who were none other than

larry phillips Jr and emil matasareanu-the perpetrators of the north hollywood shootout.

we’re in the mid 90s and the  heyday of armed robbery seems to be over .

the number of robberies  in los angeles is drastically  dropping from 2641 during  the peak of 1992 to 749 the following year

 the main reason,the leader of the baby bandits was under arrest in  1993.this arrest gave the LA  police a breath at least until 1996 when another group of robbers appeared .

the duo we’re interested in

featuring larry phillips Jr and emil matasareanu..

but let’s take a step back in time to get an understanding of who these two men were.

larry phillips JR  of mexican and  italian descent  was born on  september the 20th 1970 in los angeles into a family not like any other

larry  phillips senior had several run- ins with the law during his life which didn’t make his son’s childhood any easier.

it is said that it was his father who encouraged larry phillips Jr to take the road of delinquency by projecting onto him his hatred of police officers.

according to larry phillips senior ,this hatred began on his son’s 6th birthday when FBI agents came to his house guns drawn to arrest him.

another  version  says that the father  would have also have influencse  his son  during montain trips which would   hav  created  in larry an version to la enforcement.

later his parents  devorced and larry  lived  with his mother even though his father  continutes to see him and plays a rolls in his life.

taken him to try his hand at firearms at shooting ranges,these sessions instilled in the young man a real passsion for weapons.

at 13 ,he dropped out of school  because  what interest larry most  is money, he wants to get rich  quick and he’s determined to do it by following in the footsteps  of his idols .

some of them  of whom were big names and white collar crime according to his  half brother he was motivated by nothing more than money and power.

then came the inevitable, on  september 2nd. 1991 larry committed his first crime a theift of $ 400  worth of  suits for which he was arrested and tried and  which brought him a 3 day stay at the police station.

as the months went on ,he found himself in legal trougble again this time because of illegal real estate activities fraud to be precise a crime for which he will  be sentended again.

but larry doesn’t seem to learn his lessons and keeps on perservering, his tthirst  for  wealth coupled with the resentment of cocietys rules only grows.

sometimes he would take his halfbrother to the richest parties  of the  city to motivate him as he put it in particular  he would  tell him

why don’t you  visualixe  hourself in that house, the reason is society tells you  you have to have a 9-5 job until  you retired  at 65.

weealth is what drove larry phillip junior abit like bodybuilding another of  his pasions that he  practiced diligently and  which led him to meet the secong protagonist of the north hollywood shoutout.

Emil Mătăsăreanu

gold’s gym  in venice beach is where larry  and emil first met, larry a boddy building  enthusiast h s been dreaming of becoming the new arnold schwarzenegger since he was a teenager.

 he puts his heart and soul into it  reading a plathero of books on the subject and training regularly, unfortunately not everyone can becom  a bodybuilding star.

geneticks playng  a large part  , larry realizes that his  dram will remain  forever out of reach and puts and and  to his ambitons.

to be  mr  olympia, this  disillusionment doesn’t provent him from remaining disiplined in his training.

however larry continues to  attends gold’s gym until thhe day he meets another regular who is also  pasionate  about  body building and firearms.

Emil Mătăsăreanu of romania  origin was born in timara romania. on july 19th 1966, he was  the only son of parents who decided to leave europe in the mid 1970s and settle in the United states in los angeles.

like larry ,emil had a difficultchildhood but for different reasons ,his  classmates  regularly mocked him  for his romanian  accent and  for being overweight.

this constant harassment prompted him to spend much of his time at home in front of  his computer, during  this period he devoleped a passion for firearms.

he managed to make a few friends ,but never kept them for very long  he was a socialy maladjusted young man as his mother describes him.

at home tensions flare as emil’s parents begin to argue more and  more divorce was around the corner but emil seemed to be coping with the situation for the time being.

he continued  his studies,taking a three -year course in electronic  engineering, graduating in 1987

sometime later he opened his own IT business,his mother wanted him to continue his studies but he was determined to enter the business world and start earning money.

his parents  recurring quars and pressure he was under gradually weighed on him leading to  a series of temper tantrums such as  the time  he threw a chainsaw in his  neighbor’s face because his dog had dared to walk on their lawn.

computers and guns  ar no longer enough  to relieve emil’s stress and  neighbors often see him on the front  porch cleaning his guns.

the needed to  channel his anger leads him to another passion which initially  causes him lose over 100 lb.

but also  leads him to meet his future partner in crime- larry.

the story takes place in 1991 at Gold’s gym in venice beach los angeles

 

 emil  who trains there reguarly meets a man who will dramatically change his life a young man like him enjoys  lifting weights and guns  and who will soon embark with him on a frenzied crime spree.

because it’s larry who’s clearly going to emerge as the leader in this new friendship to the point where he manipulates emil  psychologiclly because  according to larry’s  half- brother emil was just a follower in the group.

this how larry controlled every  aspect of emil  life.

he most  likely told him about his resentment towards the police and society and even went so far as to influence his choice of spouse.

emil had indeed returned to romania  in the early 19190s to bring his grandmother to the united states.

he then used the opportunity to bring back a romanian  women whom he later married , larry for his part,  was with a hispanic women.

so it was thisfriendship that triggered the events that unfolded in  north hollywood on february 28th  1997 an ordinary friendship  but one that would soon turn into a murderous agreement.

los angeles was clearly not  ready for what was to come

octobor 1993 glendale  los angeles county . 

  larry phillips junior and emil driving a red ford thunderbird  leaving a gas  station at high speed.

just then ian grimes a nearby  police sergeant spots them and immediately gives chase.

having succeeded in stopping them the officer then ask them a few routine control questions .

face with  the officer’s questions larry seemedrelucted to answer.worse. emil lies to the officer ,saying that thecar belongs to larry’s mother even though they had rented it at an airport.

emilc should have known that before arresting them the police man would have asked for a license plate check

which of course he later did

 faced with larry’s hesitantion and his friend’s attempt  at deception officer grimes senses that something is fishy

so he invites  lary to get out f his car and join him in the back to check out and what does he find- a gun.

the agen’ts suspicion grows and grows  he immediately calls for reinforcements and when they open the trunk.

suprise he and his colleagues a whole aresenla of weapons uncluding assault riffles machine guns , explosive devices,bulletproof vests smoke bombs enough to leave the police  speachless.

had larry and emil been speeding to a safe house to hide all this equipment? it’s possible. what’s certain is that they couldn’t have gone far now  that the officers had arrested them.

larry and emil were identified by the police e and sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit  robbery for what   they each spend  about 100 days in jail,they serve their respective sentences then are released onto the streets of los angeles with  a large art of their arsenal in their possession…of course they don’t learn their lesson and get ready to commit their first robbery.

herman cook a 51 year old father of two .

orders one of the bandits to the one ot the bandits to the pedestrians before taking action.

the extremely brutal robbery began with the barrage of shots fired without warning at the armored car in full view of a doxen witnesses .

the bandits didn’t even give the security guards  a chance  to hand over the money simply opening fire on them without warning .

using ther atomatic assault  rifles with armor piercing bullets, they gave herman cook no chance and he died  under fire ,shot at point blank range.

$ 122,500 was the loot that larry  and emil had taken that day at the cost  of  a man’s life even the reward offered for their capture would prove greater than the amount they stole that day.

 1996

march 27th 1996, 9 months later

larry and emil attack another armored car with an wqually direct and brutal modus operandi,they were in a van when one of them on the passenger side shot through the door  windshield of a brink’s van  coming towards them  in the opposite direction .

one of the agents inside is slightly wounded by shards of glass but this is not enough to stp the vehicle carrying the money as it speeds off to escape the  the  assailants.

larry and emil turn back to try t and catch  up with  it but are unable to do so.it’s their first big failure to erase the evidence they set fire to their van before changing vehicles and fleeing the scene.

 

the scene is eerly reminiscentof the  film Heat released a month earlier.

1996

may 2nd, 1996 the duo followed up with another armed robbery ,gone were the armored vans .

now they decided to take the plunge and hit the banks their first target;

a bank of america  branch in the van nuys district of los angeles.

it was shortly before 10 :00  am. when the two robbers armed with automatic rifles burst into the establishment and fired a dozen shots into the ceiling.

inside some 30 people were taken hostage including several children.

terrfied by  what was happening some of them were crying  which soon irritated the two men who threatened to kill them if their  mothers didn’t make them stop crying.

larry and  emil have absolutely no scruples all they care about is money and that  day they’re goung to get a lot of it- over $ 755 ,000.

 may 31 st 1996

it’s the same old story ….

larry and emil attacked  a second bank of  america branch

not far  from where they robbed the armored  car that had claimed herman cook’s life a year before.

the robbery  began at 10 :05 with the same modus operandi as earlier in the month ,this time however they left  two injured tellers in their wake.

the amount stole was even greater than the previous $ 794, 200 giving them  a total of $ 1 500,000 in the space of 30 days.

the investigators had been warned,for the first time they  could see the two robbers they were looking for through the surveillance cameras.

two hooded robbers with imposing intimidating builds walking slowly assault rifles  in hand.

an atypical bank robber profile and what espceially jumps out at the FBI agents is the time taken by the duo to pull upp off the  robberies.

6 minutes for the first  and 8 minutes for the second.

which is an eternity for  bank robberies.

in fact  it’s as if they don’t seem to be in any hurry when it comes to robbing.

always keeping the same pace, even during the getaway as if in the  end it wasn’t robbery itself that animated them but th possible armed confrontation with the authorities.

maybe that was what what they wanted to do after all well if it was they were in  for a treat.

yeas , because we finally arrived at the holdup we’re interested in.

the one that will soon pit larry and emil  against police officers  in the middle of los angeles.

the north hollywood shootout was just around the corner……..

1997

february 28th, 1997,los angeles that morning in the city of angels the weather was mild and clement.

the blue scy over the city suggests a pleasent sunny day just another winter’s morning you might say .

for the residents of north hollywood who have no idea that their neighborhood will soon be the scene  of  one of the most violent urban shootouts in history.

two men in a white chevrolet with heavily tinted windows speed down the road toards a bank in the north hollywood neighborhood.

larry and emil are ready for their next big Heist.

with them is an impressive arsenal including several illegally modified weapons of  a war.

larry  is carrying almost 20 kg  of gear including homemade bulletproof protection which covers him from head  to toe.

emil more lightly equipped takes only a metal ballistic plate to protect his vital organs.

sometime earlier they had swallowed tranquilizers to reduce the stress of going into action.

9:11 a.m

the duo gradually aproched their target a bank of america  branch in north hollywood.

the car parks but surpisingly the robber’s position it facing the wall a  curious strategy given that parking in revers would  have enabled them to escape more quickly.

no matter ,the robbery is about to begin…..

larry and emil put on their  hoods and sunglasses,larry does a quick check on the police scanner which he illegally posesses.

and then it’s off.

9:17 a.m

when the wo men exit the vehicle one after the other, their watches are set to  8 minutes- the time they estimate before the polixw interverne.

they head  for the bank entrance.their bodybuilder stature combined with the heavy equipment they’re wearing make them look like two  intimediating monsters about to terrify the world.

the robery begins when larry orders one of the banäs customers to enter the establishment.

two policemen standing near the bank witness the surreal scene.

the robbery had barely begun but the alert had already been given unaware of this , larry and emil carry on with their robbery.

then putting their money where their mouths are  the two of them strafe the ceiling of the bank.

the 30 or so employee and customers  present  at the bank of america that morning are terrified.

it doesn’t take long for LAPD  patrol  cars to arrive at the scene of the crime.

inside the bank larry ensure s that all the hostages remain motionless 30 men, women and children lie on the floor terrrified by the criminal who roams the room  threatening to kill anyone who  dares challenge his authority.

meanwhile , emil is busy collecting  the money, he then hits a 79 year old lady who doesn’t obey quicly enough with a backhand to the head  then fires a dozen shots at the security door of the ticket office.

emil then heads into the private part of  the bank where the wault and other emplyees are located.

among the  employees is the  banl’s deputy manager who holds the key to the vault ,seeing the robber’s determination he gives him access without resisting .

this doesn’t stop emil from whaking him over the hand with a rifle butt.

once inside the wault,emil gets more and more upset ,the deputie manager unlocked secure boxes containing only small bundles.

 the bandit’s big blackbag isn’t filling up fast enoug  for his liking  they  had planned on a hau of $ 7 50,000 and all they  get back  is bearly half of that just over $ 300,000.

emil stares angrily at his hostage and repeatedly asks him to take out more money alas that’s all the bank had at the time.

an ominous silence falls ,suddenly the disgruntled robber fires his assault rifle into the ceiling of the vault.

for his part ,larry continued  to watch the hostages moving from one side of  the bank lobby to another when he noticed something strange outside…

not a single car was in sight, larry goes out to investigate and scans the area.he sees a police car parked on his right but no more concerned than that  he returns to the bank undisturbed.

larry then lashes out of the hostages and fires his  AK -47.

by this time the police have surrounded the bank taking cover behind their vehicles they’re ready for the criminals.

or so they think….

as it turns out their handguns and short range  shotguns will be ineffective.

back in the bank emil and larry are disappointed the loot of $ 303.305 is clearly not enough…

but the clock is  ticking and the police are pouring in.

contfrontation  seems inevitalbe future chaos is on the horizon and it doesn’t help that  the cops haven’t had enough time to clear the area of civilians.

for the robbers it’s time to plan their exit,larry orders the security guard to take all the hostages to the vault.

then the two men head for the exit door where the police are waiting with their war weapons and multiple  bulletproof protections the upcoming  confrontation is already shaping up to be a tense one.

9:24  a.m

larry  is the first to emerge  from the building,he point his assault rifle at the police vehicles and opens fire…..

the deafening sound of the bullets echoed throughout the neighborhood police officers and civilians dived to the ground in order to avoid the  piercing bullets from the automatical rafles.

the cars they  were hiding behind were pierced like paper , some bullets even flying out the other  side of the bodywork.

200  rounds were fired by larry, he then retreated into the bank.

the first hail of bullets had already wounded several people including two civilians.

9:30

larry reapperead , this time accompanied by emil who is carrying the bag of money.

the bursts of gunfire resume but more intensely.

the hail of bullets  hit many police officers  including one who  wasshot in the thigh shattering his femur.

for the police officers present it’s almost impossible to fight back.

two robbers had far too superior weapons at their disposal.

whitout firepower  the idea came to go to a nearby gun store.

larry and emil seemed invincible yet two policemen managed to inflict the first damage

 

wounding larry phillips. 

located  some 200 m from the robber  one of the policemen took a huge risk by going out  into the open to shoot ther robber in the back.

he fired twice wounding larry in the back and buttock.

the robber staggers then turns around in rage spraying the policemen with armor -piercing bullets, then wound him and his partner.

the situation is becoming more and more tense , larry and emil keep on firing  at anything that moves.

policemen or civilians no one is spared.

the robbers then want to secure their loot, to do so emil fires continuously to cover  his sidekick who heads  to the caar with the money bag containing three anti-theft devices.

suddenly the system activates and explodes covering all the cash in red ink ,larry and emil  could kiss their 300 grand goodbye.

the confrontation goes on and suprisingly the two  bandits don’t seem to want to run away, endeed they  go so far as to attpemt to break into an automatic teller machine outside the bank .

seeimingly in no hurry ,larry strolls quietly pass the bank shooting  anything that moves including news helicopters broadcasting the shootout live.

for emil things are more complicated  hit by several bullets including one that tore his eyebrow he was ina state of  shock and put himself out of action by sitting down in the passenger seat of the car.

at this point  they could very well have taken their car and sped off but no instead they continued to confront th autorities.

no doubt  larry who had a tenacious hatred of cops took great  pleasure in shooting at the police.

and since he was the leader of  the duo, emil probably followed him at one point however we see emil trying to convince his accomplice to leave.

passing to the driver’s side he opens  the passenger door to signal to his accomplice that it’s time to leave.

but larry doesn’t seem to mind and  closes the door with the sweep of his hip as if to say ” i still want to have some fun”.

a scene which shows that his partner may have intended to put an end to the bloodshed because it’s possible that emil heard on his radio scanner the arrival of SWAT to help the  police.

and confronting SWAT  was another matter,in an attempt to convince larry of the necessity to leave emil stepped on the gas pedal and slowly drove the chevrolet towards the north exit of the parking lot.

Larry follow  on foot and continues too shoot at the targets around him after that he takes cover behind a semi-trailer while emil still driving the car  seems to be waiting for him to get away once and for all.

exept that larry is unwilling  to answer his calls busy repairing his gun which has jammed in the meantime.

that’s when a police officer positioned right in front of  the trailer sees  emil and start shooting.

the bullet passes through the driver’s window in just few centimeters from emil’s face. startled emil  hit the gas  pedal and pulls hard on the  steering wheel practically lying down on the front seats to avoid the shots.

larry is now alone kneeling in the back of the truck,he still tries to unblock his  gun in vain .

officer caparelli stationed up the street from larry  handgun in hand and exposed fires at assailant  then quickly escapes to avoid the kalishnikov first.

what he doesn’t know is that larry’s gun is jammed  preventing the robber from firing back.

agent caparelli continued to shoot at larry who began flinch a bullet hits him in the right clavicle artery severing it and causing a severe wound.

in respons larry pullet out his beretta pistol and counterattacked when  suddenly another policeman hit him on the right hand causing him to drop his pistol.

he picks it up from the ground places the barrel under his chin and pulls the trigger one last time..

9:56 a.m

the first assailant  in the north  hollywood shootout is dead.

meanwhile emil whos car has both rear tires punctured in the windshield covered with bullet holes tries to steel another vehicle to escape.

for several minutes he tries to steal every car he comes across but the first  two carjackings  fail.

in  one of them he is seen waving in the direction of larry who lies three blocks to the east dead surrounded by policemen.

emil taps his chest twice as if to bid him a final farwell, emil then attempts to steal a third vehicle and this is it  a beige jeep arrives in the opposite  direction and is blocked by the criminals white chevrole

t which shoots out  the driver’s windshield the driver of the pickup hit by shrapnel in the arm and face doesn’t try to understand he flees imediatelly

emil now has a way out he transfers his weapons and ammunition to the pickup then tries to start the car.

problem it wouldn’t start,the driver had activated the kill switch rendering the jeep unusable then a police patrol car with three SWAT team members on board arrives at full speed and pulls up in front  of the pickup where emil sitting.

still trying to start the car….

seeing the police arrive  emil immediately leaves the stolen vehicle and positions himself in the back of his chevrolet ready to face the SWAT team.

less then 20 m away for the first time  the confrontation is one of equal firepower with the officers armed with assault rifles,escape  seems compromised for the fugitive but that doesn”t stop him from continuing the fight.

cornered behind his car however he is quickly overtaken by the bursts of SWAT bullets flying everywhere, emil tries to fire back blindly but most of the bullets land in his own windshield and on the open trunk of the car.

the police continue to fire at emil who is shot several times in the chest but emil is still alive.seeing the assailant still crouching and in firing position the SWAT agent then had the good idea to aim at a unprotected legs.

the shots  fly off andhit emil  several times, with his legs riddled with bullets emil no longer had the strengh to continue.

he was hit 29 times and lost  a lot of blood, the SWAT officers put him on the stomach and handcuffed him.

emil smiling then has the strengh to utter a few obscenities and even taunts them saying “shoot me in the fucking head”

he bled to death on the pavement before the ambulance could arrive.

the north hollywood shootout was finally over

a botched robbery that left two dead.

larry philips Jr and emil Mătăsăreanu

a real  miracle considering the violence of the event whivch also injured eight civilians and 12  police officers two of them seriusly forcing them to end their careers .

in addition  12 police cars were destroyed and 85 vilian vehicles were hit.

the hundreds of bullet holes in the walls reflected the horror of what  had happened that morning…now  it was time for cleanup.

finally the north hollywood shootout highlighted the glaring imbalance  and firearms between police  and criminals.

the police’s shotguns and handguns were clearly no match for the criminals assault rifles and bulletproof protection.

this was done  after the north hollywood shootout when the LAPD followed by police departements across the US were  issued semi- automatic riffles to prevent further incidents of this type.

police would later discover that larry phillips had a copy the film Heat in his home a film that the two men probably used as inspiration  for their robberies.

firearms were also seized during the raids on larry and emil’s homes.

the most of the stolen money around $ 1.500.000  from previous robberies was never recovered.

the story that ends in mystery ,that’s the end of this incredible story.

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