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March 3, 2024 - ParaNaughtica
48:30
Episode 59. The North Hollywood Shootout

And here is part two to this insane bank robbery/shootout by two masked gunmen with powerful automatic rifles, as they were decked out in homemade body armor. This was a wild one as it unfolded live on television.I hope you all enjoy. EMAIL ME!!!! paranaughtica@gmail.comTwitter/X @paranaughticaFacebook The Paranaughtica PodcastYoutube The Paranaughtica Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Time Text
I want you to win.
win. You gotta say I'm a human being.
God damn it.
My life has value.
you
Well, good morning, Kyle.
We're looking at the Bank of America here on Laurel Canyon.
This is just north of Kittredge Boulevard.
And what's happened here this morning is at least five suspects have entered the bank armed in body armor and automatic weapons, and they have robbed the Bank of America here.
Now, LAPD has responded in force to the scene, and let me tell you what's transpired since their arrival.
At least two officers down.
One of those officers, we understand, has just been picked up by fellow officers in a patrol car.
Now, the LAPD responded to the scene here on their first call of the bank being robbed, and that's when they were confronted with what our pilot Dean is just telling us that they're firing at us right now.
So we're going to move off a little bit to the side, but we're going to continue with this picture and tell you exactly what we know.
When they were confronted by these suspects dressed in full body armor and AK-47 fire...
This is what we heard from the dispatcher when we were on our way over here.
All officers were to stay away from the scene, were to remain low because they were receiving fire from the bank and that fire was described as automatic weapon fire, AK-47 fire to be precise.
There is SWAT on the scene here.
They have not yet deployed.
Of course, we will not show you that deployment, but suffice to say that there is SWAT on the scene right now, and the LAPD has the bank surrounded.
Now, there is another officer.
The officer that was down was at the corner, a little bit away from the bank.
Suffice to say that these bank robbers were well-equipped with body armor and all the paramilitary gear that goes along with that.
So this was a highly planned and professional job.
The problem is, of course, the LAPD arrived and has foiled their plan in so much as that they didn't get away with it so far.
Now, the situation is still unfolding as we arrive.
I'm listening to several different radios as we speak, and so far that's the most current information I have for you.
And welcome back, everyone.
I know.
I know.
People were very invested in last week's episode, and then I just rudely smacked you around when I cut it short.
I do apologize for that inconvenience.
And I did get this email from WontonNinjaJinger23 here.
She said, well, I think it's a she.
They said, quote, Hey man, that was a great episode right until you ended it all of a sudden.
I was super into it and I'm sure I speak for everyone else when I say this.
What the fuck?
No, really though.
Love the show.
You're doing awesome.
And they ended it with, I like this.
Are we still afraid of squirrels?
Well, first of all, Thank you so much for emailing me and giving me some props.
Secondly, the squirrels.
Yes. Yes.
We need to stay vigilant and stand our ground against the squirrel.
Stay strong.
But alright, moving right along here.
I am very happy for you to be here with me today so we can finish out this two-parter on the North Hollywood shootout that took place in Los Angeles on February 28, 1997.
So here's a little rehash of up to where we left off.
Two masked men decked out in homemade body armor, which covered everything except their legs, were carrying Norinco-style.56 rifles, Chinese-style AK-47s basically, that were illegally modified to shoot fully automatic.
They also had a car where many other weapons were stored with roughly 3,000 rounds of ammunition.
Most of it, if not all, were armor-piercing bullets.
Leading up to their final assault on the L.A. Police Department, the two best buds had been pulled over after spinning the tires leaving a gas station, where the police would find a pretty large arsenal of weapons in the trunk, including body armor, wigs, spray paint,
face mask gloves, $1,600 in a bag, and a couple explosive devices, and a bunch of other incriminating shit.
They were both arrested and each served a few months in jail until the charges were reduced and the two men were released on three years of probation.
Just a slap on the wrist.
But once they were free again, they started planning their next hit.
Because why not?
And they ended up robbing a couple of those armory trucks and got away with quite a bit of money.
They thought, you know, this isn't exciting enough.
Maybe we should rob a bank.
And so they did.
At least two of them.
And, well, they got away with a lot more money.
The media gave them a couple of names.
The first one was the AK-47 Bandits, which is a pretty cool name.
And then also they gave them the name the High Incident Bandits, which is, uh, meh.
Nah, I go with AK-47 Bandit.
And that pretty much brings us up to speed to where we ended last week and where we will pick up today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
One night in July 1996, Emil Mozzarano would drive his wife to a local Denny's restaurant for some fantastic dinner.
Then something crazy happened.
Emil would have one of the seizures that he had been suffering from for essentially his entire life.
This would call for him to be brought to a hospital where it was found that he had a blood clot in his brain, which was presumed to be the result of when he was hit in the head with a shoe when he was younger.
Who knows?
Be that as it may, for $45,000, the hospital would perform an operation to remove the clot, but not before putting down a $15,000 deposit on the surgery, which is just insane to me.
Completely insane.
You gotta put down a $15,000 deposit to, like, get a life-saving procedure?
Brain surgery?
Get this blood clot out of your brain, which costs you $45,000?
Just insane.
Insane to me.
Anyway, the doctors would drill two holes into his skull, each being about the size of a quarter.
One would be drilled into the right side of his skull, just behind the ear, and the other was drilled just off-center into the rear of his skull.
Man. But you know what?
Things were looking good.
Emil looked even better.
He was given some phenobarbital and delantin to help with the dizziness and loss of consciousness.
You know, medications that he chose not to take.
And phenobarbital, by the way, if you don't know, has been a drug of choice to carry out judicial executions.
It's also used to treat anxiety and as a sedative and some other stuff.
But soon after that surgery, Emil's wife would unfortunately leave him.
While Emil was laid up in recovery, Larry was antsy to do another job.
In the interim, Larry would come up with a good idea for some basic body armor.
Both men already had bulletproof vests, but Larry knew that the legs were a very vulnerable part of the body.
Therefore, he decided to take aramid, which is a man-made fiber used in the bulletproofing material.
He decided to take that and cut it in such a way where it wouldn't lose its strength, and then fashioned leg guards, arm guards, and groin guards.
Necessities. Come December of 1996, Emil would finally splurge a little bit.
With all that money they were making.
This is when he'd buy the largest, most expensive house in the hillsides of Roland Heights, L.A. It's generally thought that he bought this house as a means to show his estranged wife that he was doing well, and it was an attempt to get her to take him back.
This is also when he would call his mother and tell her these exact words.
Quote, Mama, I just want to die.
End quote.
Fucking sad, right?
And as I stated before, Emil had long suffered from depression stemming from childhood, and coupled with the fact that he suffered from seizures and everything else, it's safe to say that at the end of 1996, he wasn't doing too well mentally.
On the other end of the spectrum, Larry seemed to be doing pretty...
okay. There was one thing, though.
During a Thanksgiving dinner in Colorado, his father asked him what he would be up to that following April 1997.
Larry told his father the following, quote, You know, Pop, I might be dead by then.
It's hard to say.
End quote.
And now, the scene was set.
The two men were planning their most daring bank robbery yet.
One that would spike television ratings unlike any other.
As Jorge Montes was opening up his dentist's office across the street from Branch 384 of Bank of America for yet another bustling day of crowning and tongue-scraping with the smell test, Larry Phillips and Emma Matosorana would pull into the bank's 6600 Laurel Canyon Boulevard North Hollywood parking lot where the pair parked the white Chevrolet celebrity that they had acquired for the specific job that they had in mind on this fateful day.
Right around 9.15am, they had parked on the right-hand side of three other vehicles and spent the next approximately two minutes getting themselves in the right mindset.
Emil and Larry had both ingested some of Emil's phenobarbital, you know, to help with that anxiety, which works as a muscle relaxant, among other things.
It was found that Larry also had ephedrine in his system, most likely to keep him alert and retain a bit of focus as their plan unfolded.
But can you imagine the dopamine levels during a bank robbery, dude?
Like, it must be at astronomical levels.
I can't even imagine.
Especially under those circumstances.
Like, these guys weren't walking into some small town's mom-and-pop shop.
Some small, you know, some little candy store looking around for NECA wafers.
You know what I mean?
Like, these guys were prepared for a full-on battle with their makeshift body armor and their stash of semi-automatic rifles converted to fully automatic, and the various handguns and a ridiculous amount of ammunition.
And on top of all that, they didn't just have your standard clip for the rifles.
These guys were rocking the old-school drum magazines, which held up to 100 rounds.
And they had several of these.
Like, these guys were ready.
Now here's a pretty crazy part.
So... Larry and Emil would sit in the car for about two minutes, and right after setting their watches for the same time as a sort of stopwatch to let them know if they'd been in the bank for too long, they both got out and walked toward the northeast doorway of the bank.
Just as they were approaching the door, which was only a few meters away, Officers Martin Parello and a nine-year veteran of the LA Force, Lauren Farrell, just so happened to be driving through the Archwood and Agnes intersection right by the bank in a marked patrol car.
And Martin just so happened to take a quick glance to his left and caught sight of the very bulky and awkward-looking men dressed in all black with the classic bank robber full face masks, pretty much reaching for the bank's door to open it.
This means that it is very likely that if they had just waited 30 seconds less or 30 seconds longer in the car, then Officers Prello and Farrell wouldn't have seen them, and this entire event could have turned out to be a completely different story.
But who knows?
And to add to that fortuitousness, just as Larry and Emil were walking into the bank, there was a customer at the ATM machines just inside of the doors who was withdrawing $85.
This customer would sell them just long enough to give the officers a brief moment to get a better look at what was about to happen.
Immediately, though, Officer Perello called in a possible 2-1-1 in progress, which would be recorded and became an infamous dispatch call.
Here is that recording.
Pretty much at the same time as Perello put in the call to dispatch,
At least one of two security guards that were on duty in the bank noticed Emil and Larry coming into the bank and briefly stopping at the ATM to usher the man into the main lobby where there were about 30 other frightened people.
In the safety deposit box room just adjacent to the vault, there were another four customers along with one bank employee.
Emil entered first with Larry trailing behind him and shoving the man at the ATM to the floor.
The teller at window 12 would take notice and immediately fall to the floor where she pressed the silent alarm button, which would alert authorities of a robbery taking place.
Emil then shot off a few single rounds of the 7-6-2 slugs with the Zorinko Type 56, which is a variant of the AK-47, while yelling for everyone to get down or he would kill them all.
This is when Emil would fire off a volley of automatic fire and kindly remind everyone, just in case they weren't paying attention, that, quote-unquote, This is a fucking holdup.
Everyone down.
Motherfuckers. Just all proper, like.
But, you know, he probably expressed it with a little more aggression.
And, of course, everyone dropped to the floor as fast as possible, which is never fast enough.
That is, everyone except for 79-year-old Mildred Nolte.
Mildred, being the age that she was, was obviously a bit slower trying to get down to the floor, but Emil wasn't having any of that, and he would go on to full-on backhand the elderly woman in the face, which knocked her down.
Of this, Mildred would later say, I guess I didn't get down fast enough.
True indeed.
Emil then walked to the barricade that separated the customers from the tellers which was made of one and a quarter inch bullet resistant glass designed to stop any round up to a.44 caliber.
But Emil raised his Arrinkotype 56, aimed it at the lock on the door, and fired a few rounds which completely obliterated the locking mechanism.
His intention now was to find the person with the day key to the vault and he would find him soon enough.
He was a man named John Villagrana, the assistant manager, and he would lead Emil to a second set of keys behind the front counter.
From there, they would go to the vault where Emil would discover the five people hiding in the safety deposit box room.
He then ordered them all out to the main lobby while firing his rifle in the air simultaneously.
Up to this point, only about one minute has passed.
While Emil was doing his thing, Larry was pacing around the lobby and keeping an eye on all of the people as well as the outside surroundings.
Once Emil was inside the vault, he demanded that John fill the large duffel bag he had with him with the stacks of beautiful green cash.
He also became extremely agitated when he noticed that there was a lot less cash than he had expected there to be.
You see, the two men were expecting there to be around $750,000, but only about $300,000 was in the vault.
At least, that is what they were able to gather.
Now, I'll mention here that these guys certainly cased this place out, meaning that they knew the bank's schedule and when the trucks dropped off shipments of cash.
But they didn't know everything.
In the midst of this horrible understanding, Emma raised his rifle and unleashed an entire 75-round drum into the individual cash lockers, which are called burger boxes, that are designed to stall bank robbers by separating the cash dash into smaller individual piles and putting each pile into its own box,
thereby taking a hell of a lot more time to collect a larger amount of monies, whilst providing the authorities with a slight advantage.
And so, as John was placing the cash into the duffel bag, he also threw in a few of those die packs, but only because Emil was being so awfully demanding that all of the money be placed into the bag.
These die packs were designed to detonate once they were about six feet away from the bank perimeter.
And while all of this was going down, Larry would notice that the traffic outside on the street was awfully slow, non-existent really, which didn't seem right considering that the time was about 9.25am on a Friday morning in LA, so the street should have been bustling with traffic.
He took a moment and then briefly exited through the north entrance to take a closer look.
He most certainly noticed Officer Perello and Farrell's police cruiser parked by the crosswalk just across the street.
And it's likely that he noticed some movement from at least one officer taking position.
But by this point, most officers were still responding to the dispatch call, and the few that were already on scene were positioning themselves on the other side of the building.
Without any reaction, Larry simply turned around and went back inside of the bank where he went over their next move.
This is when Emil ordered everyone in the lobby to get inside of the vault.
And almost simultaneously, Larry would again exit the building out of the northwest door and begin to shoot his fully automatic rifle at the officers.
As the officers scrambled to duck for cover, a police helicopter, the Air 8, would fly overhead.
Larry took the opportunity to raise his rifle and fire on the helicopter, which caused the pilot to make a hasty retreat.
But escaped from being hit.
And the audio that I played at the beginning of this episode and last week's episode comes from that Air 8 helicopter.
Larry would go on to empty another 75-round drum and headed back toward the bank's entrance that he exited from.
As he did so, officers would unleash their own flurry of gunfire with their measly 9mm pistols and Smith& Wesson Model 15 revolvers.
As well as their Ithaca Model 37 shotguns, all of which having very little effect against the two heavily armed robbers who were more or less covered with body armor.
And the only areas of the bodies that weren't protected were basically their heads, their hands and wrists, their glutes, their ankles, and their feet.
But once Larry reloaded his rifle, he stepped back out into view and just started spraying with his automatic fire in a wide arc.
Which injured three police officers and one civilian in the process.
And it's like, bro, what are you doing there, man?
You hear all this gunfire?
Like, what are you doing walking up in there?
What are you doing?
What are you expecting to happen?
Come on, man.
It is generally thought that it was right about this time when Officer James Zoravin issued two shots from his Model 37 shotgun, with a number of the buckshot actually hitting Larry.
Luckily for Larry, though, only one projectile hit his flesh, and it hit him in his right buttock.
Which he probably didn't even notice just due to how much adrenaline was pumping through his body.
You know what I'm saying?
And really quick, I just wanted to point out here that in my attempt to be a comedian, I was going to make some stupid joke about how this buckshot in these Model 37s that the cops had isn't the same type of buckshot that you'd use on, I don't know, say a turkey once you've gained its trust over a period of four long and cold days and nights as you followed it through some desolate forest.
But then I was like, well, wait a minute.
Fuck, is it the same type of buckshot you'd use?
Because, isn't buckshot buckshot?
I mean, I know some things about guns, but I just had to be certain about this.
And so I looked it up, and I'm glad I did, because this is an educational podcast.
And what I found is that, apparently, the Ithaca Model 37 is a 12-gauge shotgun.
And it is actually called the Turkey Slayer.
I'm not even kidding.
So, I mean, that's pretty cool.
Pretty cool, man.
There are probably a bunch of gun enthusiasts out there that are just making fun of me right now, talking shit.
Yeah, we know it's called a turkey slater, you dumb fuck.
Yeah, well, you know what?
I didn't.
I do now.
So, give me a break.
Alright, give me a break.
Now, the buckshot from the Model 37 consists of what are, essentially, 18 individual pellets that are the equivalent to a.32 caliber round.
So, yeah, those are pretty powerful.
And Larry took one of those.32 caliber pellets straight to the ass.
Didn't even faze him.
But Larry would make it impossible for the police to advance in his direction or be able to take enough time to aim for a lethal shot simply because he continually and indiscriminately shot his weapon in every direction while the bank itself gave him protection from behind.
When Officer James Zorvin had actually struck Larry with the shotgun, Larry would immediately take aim in James' direction and sprayed a shit ton of rounds.
Two of those rounds would end up striking James.
One hit him in his lower back, and the other blasted through his hip.
Through the incessant gunfire, a couple of police officers next to James would grab him and make a run for it toward Jorge Montes' dental office seeking safety.
And this was a case for a number of civilians and police officers alike who happened to be struck by bullets or shrapnel in the melee.
As they would later say, the best they could do was just hope that they wouldn't be hit again as they literally played dead while waiting for help, if they had survived long enough for help to arrive.
Now, this might be a little surprising, but by this point in time, as all of this was unfolding, Only about three minutes has passed.
Jorge Montes and his wife would provide medical aid to James as the chaos continued around them.
Larry Phillips would retreat back inside of the bank where Emil was still lingering, and apparently nobody really knows for certain what he was doing inside of the bank for a little over three minutes, while Larry was outside just blasting away like he was some character in GTA 6 in the middle of a rampage.
Side note.
GTA 6 is set to be released in early 2025, and guess what the projected cost is to make the game?
Two billion dollars.
Two billion dollars.
I'm not even kidding.
But yeah, Emma was hanging out inside the bank for pretty close to four minutes while Larry was outside giving the police absolute hell.
It's suspected that he was collecting or trying to collect more money from the burger boxes and or the ATM machines, but people have mixed opinions on what he was actually doing, like most things.
But just the fact that he was inside the bank for that long while Larry was outside in an all-out gun battle for nearly four minutes is strange, because he most certainly heard the commotion.
And so when Larry went back inside the bank, Both men stayed in the lobby for about two more minutes before once again exiting the bank.
When they came back out, each was carrying one of the handle straps of the duffel bag.
And once outside, each man would begin to open fire on the officers.
And this is pretty intense right here.
So, Officer Stuart Guy was in a squatting position with his back pressed against the rear end of a white Dodge Caravan, which actually belonged to Jorge Montes.
It's believed that when Emil took a turn to fire on police, it was a bullet from his weapon that tore into Officer Guy's right thigh, which exited through the knee and literally threw him off his feet as if an invisible cable or something suddenly and violently just yanked on his leg and pulled him.
And in his own words, he said, quote, End quote.
So yeah, it just threw him aside.
And just remember, these rounds that Emil and Larry were shooting were armor-piercing.
They were blasting through the thick metal of police cars with no problem.
This guy, Officer Guy, was struck in his thigh and the round exited from his knee.
I don't even want to try to imagine that agony, man.
Holy shit.
But about seven minutes into the firefight, And a little less than two minutes since both men exited the bank for the last time, Larry and Emil seemed to be disorganized and unsure as to what they should do from there.
Seems like their whole plan was just falling apart.
And it kind of was.
So, the numbers are all over the board, but it's said that right around 300 police officers had responded to the scene and took part in the gun battle.
This included at least six helicopters.
I mean, what are they going to do?
At least six helicopters just flying around the scene, probably causing more danger than anything else.
But I think it's safe to assume that the two men had no idea about how many cops were actually there, but I am certain that the situation they found themselves in at this point convinced them that it was only going to end in one of two ways.
They were either going to be shot dead trying to make their escape, or they're going to end up with a death sentence if they were apprehended.
It was right about this time that the police, being perfectly aware of the fact that their own weapons were of no match to these powerful, fully automatic rifles being fired at them, they would rush over to the nearby B&B guns, where they would pick up five Colt Sporters,
two Remington shotguns, and a bunch of ammo to go along with them.
It wasn't a lot, but it certainly helped.
And over the next handful of moments, Emil and Larry would take turns covering for the other as they headed back to their car, just parked feet away, and both men would end up being hit multiple times.
Again, luckily for them, the body armor had taken the brunt of the damages.
But only six feet away from the bank's doors is when those die packs went off.
Now their plan was totally destroyed.
The guys pretty much figured that the money was ruined, which surely pissed them off.
And they decided to just ditch it.
But they were bitter about having to do so, as one can imagine.
All this trouble with nothing to show for it.
Now they decided to get out of there.
Thing is, that not all the money was actually damaged, since each stack of cash was individually wrapped in cellophane.
In fact, most of it was actually fine.
But they didn't know that.
The two men would continue firing their weapons, and as Emma was making a move around a corner, He would be struck just above the left eye from debris caused by a bullet striking the building.
This would cause a good amount of blood to pour down from his face.
He'd immediately duck behind the safety of their vehicle and begin to feel his head to assess the damage.
He realized it wasn't all that bad and so he just continued the assault.
And right around this time, he'd be hit again in his right calf and possibly one of his ass cheeks.
Watching the footage, it appears that Emil was more interested in making an escape in the car as he would get behind the wheel of the Chevy Celebrity where he would stay for the next 20 minutes or so, firing his rifle from time to time, while Larry walked around the car shooting bursts of gunfire in every direction.
It would seem that both men had different ideas of what they wanted to do.
But, as Emil sat in the driver's seat doing something, presumably reloading, Maybe taking some more pills, who knows?
But Larry would casually walk up to the driver's side door, which was slightly open, so he could talk to Emil as he simultaneously reached in to grab something from him.
And as he was doing this, it was like it was just another Sunday afternoon rubbing one out really quick to an old Ricky Lake rerun, you know, back when she had big bones.
But as he reached in, Larry would either be hit or was very close to being hit.
Which quickly snapped him back to reality, and he quickly ran to the front of the car for cover, firing simultaneously.
After some moments of Larry exchanging gunfire with the police, Emil would reverse the car and face it toward the exit on Archwood Street.
It was clear when he watched the footage that Emil was waiting for Larry to get in the car so they could at least try to escape the situation.
I mean, if he did, it could have bought them a little bit of time to reload their weapons, assess the damage, just try to regroup, really, get their shit in order, to continue their assault.
But he didn't do that.
Larry was not interested in getting into the car.
It appeared that Larry just wanted to shoot it out with the coppers to the very end.
I don't know this for a fact, nobody really does, but based off of the footage, that is exactly what it looks like.
It looks like he intended to finish the day out by being killed by the police.
So, as Emma was chilling in the driver's seat, waiting for Larry, Larry would be struck at least once, directly, and his rifle was hit at least twice, very likely causing some shrapnel injuries.
He was hit in the left hand, with the exit wound coming out of the back of his hand, about two inches below the main index finger knuckle.
And the damage to the rifle had made it inoperable, but he didn't realize that for some very crucial moments.
And now that he didn't have the full function of a grip with his left hand, because he was right-handed and his trigger fingers with his right hand, Larry resorted to having to hold his left arm out in front of him, bent at the elbow, and used it as a sort of support to place the rifle on top of because it was just useless otherwise.
It's also believed that another bullet found its way to his left forearm, where it spiraled up toward the elbow.
Still, he continued to spray bullets in every direction, even up at the news helicopters that were filming everything happening live.
Back when television was great, you know?
While Emil continued to wait for Larry to get in, he would hear over the police scanner that they had that the SWAT had been called in.
Shit just got real.
And what is that, like four stars or five stars in GTA?
I don't know.
Now, you'd think that the SWAT would be far more prepared for this scenario, not to mention having superior firepower.
But they weren't, and they didn't.
Not only that, but according to many news sources, they were so unprepared that most of the SWAT officers were still in their beach shorts and flip-flops with a stripe of SPF-30 sunblock on their nose.
But not only was SWAT finally called in, but the police radios would flood with the words, shoot for the legs, they don't have armor on their legs.
So once SWAT was finally called in, the police radios would be flooded with the words, quote, shoot for the legs, they don't have armor on their legs, end quote.
I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that Emil would have heard that news.
This is when Larry maneuvered himself to the trunk of their car and switched out to Zarenko Type 56 with the HK-91 and continued to fire off rounds.
Emil himself would fire off bursts of gunfire through the driver's side window.
Larry then walked up to the passenger side window and Emil would actually shove the door open for him to get in.
Like, dude, come on, get the fuck in.
But still, Larry just wanted to shoot his guns.
Moments after shooting with the HK-91, Larry would be hit again, and so would the gun.
The HK became jammed, just like the Norinco, so Larry switched to a different Norinco and continued to fire.
He would walk back up to the passenger side door, shut it, and then motion for Emil to drive alongside him as he walked and shot their way out of there.
Unbeknownst to either of them, the getaway car was Heavily damaged, the tires were blown out, and it wasn't going to get them very far.
Regardless, Larry starts walking while Emil paces alongside him as they head toward Archwood Street.
About 30 feet away, Larry tosses a gem of ammo on the top of the car, which Emil takes as a prompt to stop the car, probably thinking that Larry finally wanted to get in.
But Larry just fired off a few more rounds west toward Laurel Canyon Boulevard and then ran back toward the bank to where he left some ammo laying by the other cars that they were parked by.
He then walks back toward Emil, all the while popping more rounds off.
And while waiting for Larry to return to the car, Emil kept inching forward as if he was ready to just peel out of there.
But I think he was signaling for Larry to just get in the car, dude.
Get in the fucking car.
Still, Larry was dead set on not getting in the car, and once he met back up with Emil, who was now fully stopped, where Larry just continued to walk out of the exit into Archwood Street, where he hooked a hard right heading east on the sidewalk.
Once Larry was ahead about 30 feet or so, Emil started to follow in his direction.
And I think this is the perfect time for us to just take a quick little break here.
So let's just take it quick.
Thank you.
And alright.
So, Larry briskly walked along the sidewalk and went behind a large construction trailer or something, which blocked the view of the helicopter above.
It also blocked the view between himself and Emil, who was driving the car.
But before we lose sight of him, he is firing his rifle down the street heading east, the same direction both he and Emil are heading.
Again, his rifle is either struck by a bullet and left inoperable, or it gets jammed.
Either way, Larry retreats behind the trailer and back into view, but at this point, Emil had already driven down Archwood just far enough that the two were officially just separated.
They couldn't see each other.
They were separated.
They literally missed each other by mere moments, and if Larry had not walked behind that trailer, which was a critical error on his part, Or if Emil didn't have such a lead foot, they wouldn't have gotten so quickly separated.
Because Larry was only out of view for a very, very brief period of time.
And if Emil had just slowed down or stopped when Larry walked behind the trailer, then they would not have gotten separated.
But the amount of time was just long enough for both men to completely lose sight of each other.
At any rate, Larry was struggling to unjam his rifle, but soon realized that it was useless.
And he was left with only his Beretta 92 handgun.
I think at this point, Larry realized that it was done.
He leapt out from the trailer and started to head east again, continuing his assault with his handgun.
Almost instantly, a bullet would strike him in his right hand, his dominant hand, causing him to drop the gun.
That's when he knew it was over, officially.
He bent over, picked up the Beretta with his injured left hand, Place it under his chin and fired.
Effectively ending his life by suicide on live television.
But this did not stop the police from continuing to fire more rounds at him.
They would fire dozens of more rounds at his already dead body.
Some would hit, some would not.
And if you watch the footage, you'll see he gets hit quite a few times.
I mean, his body gets jolted backward from each shot.
Looks like he got shot in the head once.
Definitely got shot in the body.
But there was one wound that the medical examiner who was called to the scene said seemed pretty strange.
It was a bullet in his forehead, right between his eyes.
As if it was one of those, let's just make sure he's dead, types of wounds.
And by the time that Larry shot himself in the head and the LAPD made sure he was dead, Emil was down between Bend and Gentry Avenues, a couple blocks down, going at speeds slower than 10 miles per hour.
He kept stopping and I think he kept looking back to see if he could find Larry, but once Larry was gone, Emil continued to head east on Archwood Street.
It was down there a few more blocks that he came to a red Ford Tempo driven by a civilian heading in his direction.
Emil stopped directly in front of it and struggled to get out of the passenger side door like he's Trump Melodroid or some shit, just bumbling about being a big ol' bumblebutt about it.
But the driver of the Ford Tempo clearly noticed this huge bulky dude crawling out of the passenger side door of this car with shattered windshield and bullet holes everywhere.
Then he noticed the guns and that is when they immediately hit it in reverse and got the hell out of there.
Emil just stood there for about 10 seconds looking around and he shuts the passenger side door and just walked around the front of the car in no apparent rush.
Got back in the driver's seat and started driving again.
And this is when Emil would encounter the infamous yellow tan 1962 Jeep Gladiator driven by Bill Maher.
Not that Bill Maher.
And Emil would stop right in front of Bill, aim his rifle from inside the car through the windshield.
Bill would put it in reverse just as Emil fired off several rounds toward Bill.
That is when Bill decided to bail from his truck and just ran as fast as he possibly could.
Emil took the opportunity to pull up alongside the gladiator, and he started to transfer all of the weapons and ammo, still in no apparent hurry.
And once everything was in, Emil would jump in, shut the door, and was about to get away.
Unfortunately for Emil, Bill Maher, being the funny guy that he is, Engage the electrical kill switch before he abandoned the vehicle.
So, Emma was sitting there for a few moments, desperately trying to get it to start, but it was hopeless.
The casual time spent doing all of that cost him dearly.
The police finally caught up with him, and he literally waited until the very last moment to hop out of the truck to exchange gunfire.
Literally the last half of a second.
He ducked behind the front of the Chevy celebrity and unleashed a barrage of bullets with his Bushmaster XM 15 with the two 100 round drums attached on either side.
A beast of a weapon.
While he was knelt down, he shot at anything and everything without even looking.
But the cops were quickly surrounding him on all sides, just closing in on him.
He had no chance.
And finally, those words, "shoot for their legs, they don't have armor on their legs," came to bite him in the ankle.
Both of them, actually.
And numerous times in each.
In the form of bullets, of course.
Emel would finally be taken down.
In the footage that is still available, you can see him lying on the ground in front of the Chevy celebrity and he's waving his hands up as he's surrendering.
And while this is happening, the SWAT arrives on scene and continues shooting at him.
As does at least one police officer with a handgun.
In the end of it all, Emil would be shot a total of between 25 and 29 times.
And this is really interesting because there is this famous picture of him as he's on his stomach being handcuffed and he's holding his head up looking back down the street at the cameraman.
So he was alive when he was being handcuffed, yet he had at least 25 bullet holes in him.
And I emphasize this because there have been numerous researchers and reporters who have publicly stated that Emil was essentially executed after being handcuffed.
And despite surrendering, Detective James Voltecki and Officer John Futrell, and everyone else with the power to do so, called off all of the paramedics.
There were multiple witnesses who watched Emma lying on the ground and they said that he seemed to be alert as he spoke with Detective Lotecky.
And he was left to lay there for roughly 20 minutes until he was finally declared dead.
That is also when the media was allowed in.
But Emil Matasarano was left to bleed to death from wounds that could have been treated if given immediate proper medical attention, as was the medical personnel's legal and ethical obligation.
But that medical attention was denied to him by a number of authorities, but specifically detectives James Volchecki and John Putrell.
Not only that, but one of the officers who had been heavily engaged in the firefight all throughout, Ran up and kicked the XM-15 away from Emil's reach.
He then placed the very hot barrel of his rifle to the back of Emil's head and pressed down.
The coroner would later report an injury which resulted in a circle that was seared into the skin on the back of his head.
Because of those facts, Emil's family would later sue the city of Los Angeles, but for whatever reasons they had, the suit would be withdrawn at a later date.
And right around 10.01 a.m., that Friday morning, on the 28th of February, in the year of 1997, Emil would take his final breath.
The police would conduct all their usual investigations, and they'd ransack the men's houses.
And inside, they'd find various flak jackets and body armor.
They'd find more weapons, a lot more weapons, and a lot of ammunition.
They'd also find a shit ton of stuff to impersonate a police officer and a sheriff.
They'd also find a safe with a bunch of penge, but it was far from the $1.5 million or so that they successfully got away with in their previous robberies.
And penge is a word for money.
But in about 44 minutes, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasrano would fire around 1,100 rounds from all of their weapons.
And they still had a stash of over 3,000 more rounds inside the car.
As for all of the police who were involved and fired their weapons, of which was said to be upwards of 300 officers, there were somewhere around 650 rounds fired.
So yeah, two men fired off 1,100 rounds, give or take.
During the same time, it took for roughly 300 men to fire off Half of that amount.
That's pretty crazy.
But I will add that that is no excuse to take away Americans' right to defend themselves and their families and loved ones against the government, which is in fact the basis for the Second Amendment in the first place.
And for those who are still unaware, the Second Amendment was not put in place so people could hunt.
It was put in place to protect them from the encroaching government.
And to those who say...
Man, but Americans don't need high-capacity rifles and extended magazines to defend themselves.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Do you expect Americans to use.22 caliber revolvers and muskets and slingshots and sticks to defend themselves against the plethora of automatic weapons that the various government goons are just waiting to use against us?
Shit, man.
Even the IRS can't wait to fire their weapons.
Unfortunately, the government will always have the upper hand in weaponry.
And quite honestly, the citizens have no real chance to win any war against their own government.
That's just the sad truth.
But on the same token, nobody should allow themselves to be led away into a death camp without putting up a fight.
Anyway, during the brazen bank robbery and gun battle, 11 officers and 8 civilians were injured by direct gunfire and or shrapnel.
And one officer was injured in a car accident, which was not directly involved with the actual shootout.
The craziest thing is that only Larry and Emil would end up dying during this entire thing.
Which is fucking crazy, right?
The North Hollywood shootout would be the catalyst for the government, the Department of Defense actually, to give the LAPD 600 M16 rifles, which are now the standard issue for most police departments in the United States.
19 LAPD officers would be given medals and were invited to meet the very dangerous William Billery's slippery Dick Clinton.
It's unknown how many actually went to meet the toilet turd, but who really cares?
Oh yeah, so...
There is a movie that is loosely based off this incident called 211, which is directed by York Alex Shackleton.
I haven't seen it, but all I know is that Weston Cage is in it.
And yes, that is Nicolas Cage's son.
But if you didn't know already, Nicolas Cage is actually the nephew of the famed director Francis Ford Coppola.
Interesting, right?
It's said he actually changed his name to Nicolas Cage because he didn't want the added benefit of being related to Hollywood as he began his own Hollywood career.
And Nicolas Cage is first cousins with another actor named Jason Schwartzman, if you guys are familiar with his work.
Pretty good actor.
But I mean, come on, what's really going on here?
Honestly, when you look into family lines within Hollywood, you'd be surprised at who is related to who.
Just like in politics, like Barack Obama and George Bush Jr. are 10th cousins once removed.
Barack Obama is 9th cousins with Brad Pitt.
I mean, the connections are just weird.
Anyway. There's also a mission in Grand Theft Auto V called The Paleto Score, which is also based on the North Hollywood Shootout as well.
And there is a legit made-for-TV movie about the 44-minute-long North Hollywood Shootout called 44 Minutes, the North Hollywood Shootout, which actually portrays the events pretty closely.
It's actually a decent movie.
But that's going to be it, folks.
I can't thank you all enough for tuning in.
I truly appreciate you lending me your ear.
I truly do.
I thank you.
But please, follow me on Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it.
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But that will be it, everyone.
Until next time, stay good, stay safe, and stay cool.
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