North Hollywood Bank Shootout_February 28, 1997 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:07Yeah, there
2. 0:13several also several what also hit. I'm
3. 0:15sorry.
4. 0:17Got it. Okay. I think this is Laurel
5. 0:19Canyon. It's going to take this right up
6. 0:21to the 170.
7. 0:43Got it.
8. 0:49Okay, let me just make sure this is
9. 0:51Laurel Canyon. I'll find out where we
10. 0:52have to go from here.
11. 1:08Street sign. Great.
12. 1:14You have it. Get a hit.
13. 1:25Where'd it sit?
14. 1:30Where to sit then?
15. 1:49So, whoa. Do you want us to go to the do
16. 1:51you want us to go to the scene or try
17. 1:52and find that?
18. 1:59Roger. Okay, there's a pursuit around
19. 2:00somewhere now. We should Okay, point it
20. 2:04out to me, man.
21. 2:09I'm looking for the police activity. I
22. 2:11don't see it.
23. 2:14Got it. Yeah.
24. 2:21Looking for a Bank of America.
25. 2:24Nope.
26. 2:32Got it.
27. 2:34Well, I got the fire department. Uh, no.
28. 2:36I I haven't got the bank yet. I'm still
29. 2:38looking for the bank.
30. 2:47Still looking for the bank. Where's the
31. 2:49bank? Where's the Where's the bank, man?
32. 3:06where I see you see the two fire trucks
33. 3:08blocking the road. Okay.
34. 3:12Okay. Okay. Hang on. Hang on. Got it. I
35. 3:16got it. I got it. I got it.
36. 3:20Where is it? Where?
37. 3:25Okay, I'm in the booth. Oh, hello booth.
38. 3:28I got the bank, but I don't have any of
39. 3:30the uh Can you give me like 30 seconds?
40. 3:34Okay, well, let's go. I don't can't have
41. 3:36a lot of pictures, but I can show you uh
42. 3:38the bank.
43. 3:57Steve Lauren and Kitridge.
44. 4:09If you can orbit a little, that'd be
45. 4:10good.
46. 4:42Well, good morning, Kyle. We're looking
47. 4:43at the Bank of America here on Laurel
48. 4:45Canyon. This is just north of Kitridge
49. 4:46Boulevard. And what's happened here this
50. 4:48morning is five at least five suspects
51. 4:50have entered the bank armed in body
52. 4:52armor and automatic weapons and they
53. 4:54have robbed the Bank of America here.
54. 4:56Now, LAPD has responded in force to the
55. 4:58scene. And let me tell you what's
56. 4:59transpired since their arrival. What's
57. 5:01gone on here is there's a gun battle has
58. 5:02ensued between suspects and the police.
59. 5:04And here's what we know so far. There
60. 5:06are at least two officers down. One of
61. 5:08those officers, we understand, has just
62. 5:09been picked up by fellow officers in a
63. 5:11patrol car. and they're rushing that
64. 5:13officer to a nearby hospital. Uh the
65. 5:15second officer yet, we have yet we have
66. 5:16yet to find that second officer. Now, uh
67. 5:19the LAPD responded to the scene here on
68. 5:21their first call of the of the bank
69. 5:22being robbed and that's when they were
70. 5:24confronted with what with what what the
71. 5:26D uh with the uh our pilot dean is just
72. 5:29telling us that they're firing at us
73. 5:30right now. So, we're going to move off a
74. 5:31little bit to the side, but we're going
75. 5:32to continue with this picture and tell
76. 5:33you exactly what we know. Um what if you
77. 5:37can go around to the other side of the
78. 5:38building, Dean, that would be perfect.
79. 5:40Or where we were before. Um anyway, uh
80. 5:42Kyle, back to you. Uh what we know now
81. 5:45what's going on is we have at least two
82. 5:46LAPD officers down when they were
83. 5:48confronted with by these suspects
84. 5:49dressed in full body armor and AK-47 uh
85. 5:53uh fire. Uh this is what we heard from
86. 5:55the dispatcher when we were on our way
87. 5:56over here. All officers were to stay
88. 5:58away from the scene, were to remain low
89. 6:00because they were uh they were receiving
90. 6:02fire from the bank and that was that
91. 6:03fire was described as automatic weapon
92. 6:05fire, AK-47 fire to be precise. Right
93. 6:08now the situation is at a stalemate.
94. 6:09There is SWAT on the situ on the scene
95. 6:11here. They have not yet deployed and of
96. 6:13course we will not show you that uh
97. 6:14deployment when it does occur but uh
98. 6:16suffice to say that there is SWAT on the
99. 6:18scene right now and the LAPD has the
100. 6:20bank surrounded. Now there is another
101. 6:22officer the officer that was down was at
102. 6:24the corner a little bit away from the
103. 6:25bank and we've also heard information
104. 6:27that LAPD is in pursuit of a gray
105. 6:29vehicle which is nearby. Uh but they
106. 6:31they are not pulling that vehicle over
107. 6:33yet because of the fear of uh uh or the
108. 6:36you know the wise choice because of the
109. 6:38automatic weapons that have been fired
110. 6:39so far in this in this bank robbery.
111. 6:41Suffice to say that these bank robbers
112. 6:43were well equipped with body armor and
113. 6:45all the paramilitary gear that goes
114. 6:47along with that. So this was a a highly
115. 6:49planned and professional job. The
116. 6:51problem is of course the LAPD arrived
117. 6:53and has foiled their plan in so much as
118. 6:55that they didn't get away with it so
119. 6:57far. now that the situation is still
120. 6:59unfolding as we arrive. I'm listening to
121. 7:01several different radios as uh as we
122. 7:03speak and so far that's the most current
123. 7:05information I have for you, Kyle.
124. 7:22Okay.
125. 7:28can move in a little closer if
126. 7:42it's okay. Come back this way
127. 7:45and you go straight out this. Okay.
128. 7:58Uh, the other chopper left.
129. 8:06Describe it to me.
130. 8:17Okay. Go. Uh Dean, go around the other
131. 8:19side of the building from the side
132. 8:30all the way around.
133. 8:37Well, it's just around the other side.
134. 8:38That's right, Kyle. We're we're
135. 8:39receiving some more information now.
136. 8:40We're trying
137. 8:44They're around the other side of the
138. 8:45building.
139. 9:08Yes,
140. 9:11I'm we're coming around to it, I think,
141. 9:13right now.
142. 9:20That's as tight as we can get.
143. 9:27Well, Kyle, we're trying to work our way
144. 9:28around the other side of the bank now
145. 9:30where we understand the second officer
146. 9:31is uh is injured. We saw we've just seen
147. 9:33this white sedan pull up to the scene
148. 9:35here. Now, this could be a rescue
149. 9:36attempt or uh we were we also were under
150. 9:39the impression that the uh the suspects
151. 9:41and here we go. We have LAPD right now.
152. 9:43Uh
153. 9:46okay. Okay. We have some gun gunfire
154. 9:48right now going on. Just saw some poof
155. 9:50of smoke coming out of the side of this
156. 9:52white car. And uh we're exchanging
157. 9:54gunfire in the parking lot as we speak.
158. 9:56Uh this is a suspect we're looking at
159. 9:58right now. It looks like
160. 10:06if you can turn a little bit more, Dean,
161. 10:07let me get a little bit better
162. 10:08perspective on what's going on here.
163. 10:09Yeah, we were under the we were under
164. 10:11the impression that the uh white vehicle
165. 10:12was the suspect vehicle. And we can see
166. 10:14now that this person looks like they're
167. 10:15going to be getting into this car uh or
168. 10:18uh working on a second car also. But we
169. 10:21have seen gunfire admitted from this car
170. 10:23pointing out into the parking lot
171. 10:24direction and uh of course very cavalier
172. 10:28attitude right now. Uh walking around in
173. 10:30the parking lot uh with their automatic
174. 10:32weapons were brandishing their automatic
175. 10:34weapons. Uh
176. 10:36uh this situ we were also one of the
177. 10:38reasons we had to leave Kyle so quickly
178. 10:40is that we were I was getting reports
179. 10:41from our pilot that they were uh
180. 10:43actually firing on us right now. Now
181. 10:44Dean, if we can circle back around
182. 10:46again. We're losing it behind the tree.
183. 10:48And yeah, circle around that way if you
184. 10:50can. And we're going to keep an eye on
185. 10:51these two right here. They were firing
186. 10:53off in the direction of the police,
187. 10:54which are, as you can see from this
188. 10:55wider shot, they have the situation uh,
189. 10:58you know, well perimetered right now.
190. 11:00But of course, now you have suspects
191. 11:02that are acting uh uh uh quite uh uh
192. 11:06we have suspects that are acting quite
193. 11:08brand. Okay, we're in we're following
194. 11:10the suspect car right now. We've seen
195. 11:11them exchange fire with police already
196. 11:13on at least uh two occasions so far
197. 11:15since we've been watching. And uh, of
198. 11:18course, from what we've been reporting
199. 11:19earlier, there have been two suspects
200. 11:20down. I mean, there's two uh, police
201. 11:22officers down already.
202. 11:29They are opening fire.
203. 11:36He's firing his He's firing his weapon
204. 11:37right now, Kyle, as he runs. You can see
205. 11:39the shells ejecting from the side the
206. 11:41port of the rifle as he fires and tries
207. 11:43to get away down the side of the street.
208. 11:45Now, we've lost him behind this garbage
209. 11:47truck or disposal truck, and we're going
210. 11:48to just wait here and see what happens.
211. 11:50Uh, this is his uh obviously an
212. 11:52accomplice here on this white vehicle
213. 11:54here that we're seeing now drive quite
214. 11:56erratically, possibly a wounded suspect
215. 11:58at this point. And, uh, we're keeping an
216. 12:00eye on this right now. Let me just take
217. 12:02a quick look back over to the right as
218. 12:03this situation unfolds. If Dean, if you
219. 12:05could go back around again one more
220. 12:07time.
221. 12:18Yeah. What it what it's looked like what
222. 12:20it looked like, Kyle, is originally that
223. 12:21this car pulled up to the side of the
224. 12:22bank maybe to try and pick up the other
225. 12:24suspects. And there's a gray van that
226. 12:26that gray van actually is what we heard
227. 12:27was was being pursued earlier. I don't
228. 12:29know if this is the same gray van, but
229. 12:31it's unlikely that it would just come
230. 12:32into this neighborhood like this. Now,
231. 12:33we have this vehicle taking off again.
232. 12:35What we thought was going to happen was
233. 12:37that this vehicle was going to come up
234. 12:38and try and pick up that suspect that we
235. 12:40saw. brandishing the AK-47, firing
236. 12:42indiscriminately around at police
237. 12:44officers.
238. 12:46I'm
239. 13:03don't know where this other guy went.
240. 13:17I got him.
241. 13:20Yeah.
242. 13:22Okay. He's got a pistol out now. Okay.
243. 13:33Down. Down.
244. 13:37You're all right. That's right, Kyle. We
245. 13:40We were watching this suspect at
246. 13:53gone.
247. 14:19Okay, now getting out of the car.
248. 14:23Okay. Okay, we have another Okay, we
249. 14:25have another suspect out of the car now
250. 14:27brandishing his AK-47.
251. 14:47Okay, he's injured.
252. 14:52Well, Kyle, as you saw pretty
253. 14:53graphically uh just moments ago, one
254. 14:55suspect was taken down by LAPD. This is
255. 14:58after he of course emptied several clips
256. 15:00from his AK-47 in the direction of a
257. 15:02police officers. And at the time uh of
258. 15:04his takedown, he was also firing from a
259. 15:06uh a semi-automatic pistol. Now, we just
260. 15:08saw a second suspect get out of this
261. 15:10white car. Now, he's back in and he's
262. 15:12moving again. But when he came out of
263. 15:13the car, he came out with his uh assault
264. 15:15rifle at full port arms. He was ready to
265. 15:17fire and as a matter of fact, popped off
266. 15:19a couple rounds. Now, we are seeing some
267. 15:21other vehicles drift in and out of the
268. 15:23area. Now, this area is pretty
269. 15:24controlled. Uh Dean, you can start a
270. 15:25forward uh forward movement very slowly
271. 15:27though. We don't want to get too close.
272. 15:41Well, actually we're about uh I would
273. 15:43say four blocks uh east of that uh of
274. 15:46the bank location. This is a street that
275. 15:48runs directly off the bank perpendicular
276. 15:50to Laurel Canyon. And it's uh this uh
277. 15:52person, this suspect has uh pulled out
278. 15:54of the parking lot, made a right turn,
279. 15:55and has basically been traveling down
280. 15:57that road ever since. I could see or we
281. 15:59could see, I should say, from the
282. 16:00helicopter that when uh he got out of
283. 16:02the uh when this person got out of the
284. 16:03car, he was limping. So, this person has
285. 16:05been injured. It could explain part of
286. 16:07the erratic behavior uh that we've seen
287. 16:09so far. Now, of course, uh they the the
288. 16:12suspects in this crime have displayed
289. 16:13absolutely uh no care about life or limb
290. 16:18for themselves or for anyone else. So,
291. 16:19you have to anybody that's in this area
292. 16:21and you can see now that civilians are
293. 16:22being involved in this. We're going to
294. 16:24see this person try and take this
295. 16:25person's car right now. Uh absolutely
296. 16:27try to stay out of this area if you can.
297. 16:29We have loose armed and dangerous
298. 16:31suspects in this area and they are they
299. 16:33have no uh no sensibility when it comes
300. 16:36to life. Now, we're seeing some shots
301. 16:38being taken on the front of this car.
302. 16:39You can see these pickup truck and these
303. 16:41people are getting out of the area.
304. 16:42That's the thing to do. Move. Get out of
305. 16:44there. This uh some people are realizing
306. 16:46what they've come up against now and
307. 16:47they're leaving the area.
308. 16:57Yes,
309. 17:05that's right. That's right, Kyle. Right
310. 17:06now, we're going to see this person try
311. 17:07and maybe get into this car, although
312. 17:09he's going to have to get his car out of
313. 17:10the way first. But uh you know he's
314. 17:12there's a lot going on right here as you
315. 17:14know and as you've seen. Uh we still
316. 17:16have people that are in the air that
317. 17:18haven't been getting this word. Maybe we
318. 17:20should be this should be going out on
319. 17:21the radio. Also that this is an area to
320. 17:23avoid at all cost. We have loose
321. 17:24suspects in this area and they they
322. 17:26don't have any care or uh or anything
323. 17:28about any human life. Now we're going to
324. 17:30watch this person try and get into this
325. 17:31car and possibly drive away. Okay. Looks
326. 17:33like uh he's just thrown a pistol down
327. 17:35under the under the hood of the other
328. 17:37car. He's offloading right now, Kyle.
329. 18:00That's That's correct, Kyle. And okay,
330. 18:02now we Okay, maybe no keys in this car
331. 18:04now. So now this has become Okay, cop
332. 18:06police on the scene just driving up.
333. 18:08Bullets being exchanged, fire being
334. 18:10exchanged. You can see a fuselot of
335. 18:11bullets into this suspect vehicle as
336. 18:14police open fire. And you can see that
337. 18:15the suspect is also opening fire
338. 18:17straight through the windshield of the
339. 18:18car trying to to uh defend himself or
340. 18:20make a last stand as you might see. But
341. 18:22uh
342. 18:33okay, this is this is uh they're
343. 18:36spraying fire. The the suspect is
344. 18:38spraying fire randomly. The police seem
345. 18:40to be they're taking cover behind their
346. 18:41car and they're waiting for a shot
347. 18:43obviously to try and take this very very
348. 18:44d armed and dangerous suspect out of
349. 18:47circulation here. And that's exactly
350. 18:48what they're going to do here in
351. 18:49moments. Matter of fact, we're going to
352. 18:50just take a little bit wider angle so
353. 18:52you can still see what's going on. But
354. 18:53we don't want to be too graphic here as
355. 18:55we saw in the last situation because
356. 18:56obviously uh these aren't people that
357. 18:58we're going to that the police are going
358. 18:59to be able to deal with and talk out of
359. 19:01a situation like this. They have shown
360. 19:02total disregard for human safety and
361. 19:05pedestrians and uh citizens in the area.
362. 19:07And obviously they've wounded already
363. 19:08wounded two police officers. So this is
364. 19:10a very dangerous uh bunch of culprits
365. 19:12here that the police are dealing with
366. 19:13this morning.
367. 19:28Yeah. Two two car widths two car widths
368. 19:30away. That's right, Kyle. And the
369. 19:31suspect is down in the front of that
370. 19:33white car. You can just see the top of
371. 19:34his head there. Uh he also uh the the
372. 19:37police now that are dealing with this
373. 19:38suspect. I could tell that they are the
374. 19:40SWAT team. They are in military uniform
375. 19:43and Okay. Is this uh do we have a
376. 19:45suspect surrendering or is this just
377. 19:46reloading? No. Uh looks like maybe he
378. 19:48was just cleaning off the muzzle of his
379. 19:50gun or something. I thought at first
380. 19:51that he might have been surrendering,
381. 19:52but what we have right be right behind
382. 19:54this palm tree. And I I have to
383. 19:55reiterate, we hesitate to get too close
384. 19:57to this situation because as you heard
385. 19:58the LAPD officer moments ago on the uh
386. 20:00telephone say that he the suspects have
387. 20:03been firing in the air. Okay, now we're
388. 20:04watching a LAPD officer go around to the
389. 20:06side of the car, try and get a little
390. 20:07bit better angle, and this could come to
391. 20:09a quick conclusion uh as we speak. Uh,
392. 20:11okay, they're talking to the suspect.
393. 20:13Maybe the suspect has his hands in the
394. 20:14air. Okay, we're going to see a
395. 20:15surrender now. So, this suspect is going
396. 20:16to be taken into custody as we watch. Uh
397. 20:19what we did see earlier is when when one
398. 20:21of the um when one of the uh civilians
399. 20:23in the area saw his car come in, uh he
400. 20:26saw what was going on, understood what
401. 20:27was going on, raced out of the car, then
402. 20:29this suspect that the PD are now taking
403. 20:31into custody. They're going to swarm
404. 20:32this suspect now and take him into
405. 20:33custody. They've just taken away his
406. 20:35automatic weapon. What uh what we saw
407. 20:37happening was we saw the suspect try to
408. 20:39unload his ammunitions and his gear from
409. 20:42the white sedan that's in the right side
410. 20:43of your picture, and he was loading that
411. 20:44into the pickup truck. Okay, Dean, we
412. 20:46can move a little bit closer now, which
413. 20:47would be 12:00 for you. Straight ahead.
414. 20:49That's right. And uh uh so we're going
415. 20:51to come in and take a little closer look
416. 20:52now. What's going on? Now, the police
417. 20:54are still sitting up at defensive
418. 20:55perimeter. You can see, which could
419. 20:57indicate and probably does indicate that
420. 20:58there are some more suspects involved or
421. 21:01at large, I should say. We've seen two
422. 21:03suspects taken down, one literally taken
423. 21:05down, one taken down into custody as
424. 21:07we're watching right now. And uh that
425. 21:09would leave at least three other
426. 21:10suspects at large that we don't have
427. 21:12information on. And uh so right now this
428. 21:15is the situation here just blocks from
429. 21:17the bank robbery uh on Laurel Canyon
430. 21:19just north of Kitridge.
431. 22:41Tell me, tell me.
432. 22:52They can because they're going to start
433. 22:53a SWAT operation.
434. 22:56Okay, we're just getting a little
435. 22:58turbulence here.
436. 23:11It's right behind you on your right.
437. 23:17Actually, it's 3:00. It's 3:00.
438. 23:33Well, uh, Kyle, right now, this
439. 23:34situation that we've been watching
440. 23:36unfold has pretty much uh finished right
441. 23:38now. They have a few PD officers that
442. 23:40are still here on the scene, of course,
443. 23:41to attend to the suspect. I think what
444. 23:43we're going to do now is we're going to
445. 23:44maybe head back over to the bank because
446. 23:46it still seems that there's police
447. 23:48activity going on back there. And as a
448. 23:49matter of fact, I think that these SWAT
449. 23:51officers that we saw take this uh
450. 23:53suspect into custody. as a matter of
451. 23:55fact, come over here and show such a
452. 23:57strong force of firepower that the
453. 23:59suspect was unwilling to uh take it to
454. 24:01its final conclusion, so to speak. So,
455. 24:03he was he surrendered uh under those
456. 24:05circumstances. Now, I think that those
457. 24:07officers have been have been dispatched
458. 24:08back to the bank area and let's see if
459. 24:10we can go back over here and just get a
460. 24:12glimpse on what the activity is over at
461. 24:14the bank. As I said, it was about four
462. 24:15or five blocks and of course, there it
463. 24:16is. There's the Bank of America where of
464. 24:18course the situation is still unfolding.
465. 24:20Uh I'm not we're not we're unclear at
466. 24:22this point if there are suspects still
467. 24:23in the bank area or uh if uh the other
468. 24:26suspects have fled in the gray van that
469. 24:29we talked about earlier that was being
470. 24:30pursued by LAPD officers. The fact that
471. 24:32they were uh reluctant to pull this van
472. 24:34over of course and you can see why now
473. 24:36by watching the last half an hour on
474. 24:37television. Uh these suspects were
475. 24:39certainly ruthless uh by any stretch of
476. 24:41the imagination.
477. 24:43And uh and now this operation still goes
478. 24:47on.
479. 24:52I didn't hear
480. 25:06the middle. Okay.
481. 25:15If you want to call that on chat on the
482. 25:16desk and tell them that so because I
483. 25:18can't do that right
484. 26:36Yeah, you should. I don't know what.
485. 26:42Well,
486. 26:48well, Kyle, I can't we what we can tell
487. 26:50you is that there were at least five
488. 26:52suspects to begin with on this bank
489. 26:54robbery. And of course they were
490. 26:55described as we