Recent from talks
North Hollywood shootout
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
North Hollywood shootout
The North Hollywood shootout, also known as the Battle of North Hollywood, was a confrontation between two heavily armed and armored bank robbers, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, and police officers in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles on February 28, 1997. Both robbers were killed, twelve police officers and eight civilians were injured, and numerous vehicles and other property were damaged or destroyed by the nearly 2,000 rounds of ammunition fired by the robbers and police.
At 9:16 a.m., Phillips and Mătăsăreanu entered and robbed Bank of America's North Hollywood branch. The robbers were confronted by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers when they exited the bank and a shootout between the officers and robbers ensued. The robbers attempted to flee the scene, Phillips on foot and Mătăsăreanu in their getaway vehicle, while continuing to exchange fire with the officers. The shootout continued onto a residential street adjacent to the bank until Phillips, mortally wounded, killed himself; Mătăsăreanu was incapacitated by officers three blocks away and bled to death before the arrival of paramedics more than an hour later.
Phillips and Mătăsăreanu had robbed at least two other banks previously, using similar methods involving using their automatic rifles to get past security doors, taking control of the entire bank, and firing weapons illegally obtained and modified for fully automatic fire. They were also suspects in two armored car robberies.
Standard-issue sidearms carried by most local patrol officers at the time were 9mm pistols or .38 Special revolvers; some patrol cars were also equipped with a 12-gauge shotgun. Phillips and Mătăsăreanu carried Norinco Type 56 rifles and a Bushmaster XM-15 Dissipator with a 100-round drum magazine, all of which had been illegally modified to be select-fire capable, as well as a Heckler & Koch HK91 rifle and a Beretta 92FS pistol. The robbers wore homemade body armor which successfully protected them from handgun rounds and shotgun pellets fired by the responding officers. An LAPD Metropolitan Division SWAT team eventually arrived with higher-powered weapons, but they had little effect on the heavy body armor used by the two perpetrators. The SWAT team also commandeered an armored car to evacuate the wounded. Several officers additionally equipped themselves with rifles from a nearby firearms dealer. The incident sparked debate on the need for patrol officers to upgrade their firepower to semi-auto rifles in preparation for similar situations in the future.
Due to the large number of injuries and rounds fired, equipment used by the robbers, and overall length of the shootout, it is regarded as one of the most intense and significant gun battles in U.S. police history. Combined, the two robbers had fired approximately 1,100 rounds in total, while approximately 650 rounds were fired by police. Another estimate is that a total of nearly 2,000 rounds were fired collectively.
Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. (September 20, 1970 — February 28, 1997) and Decebal Ștefan Emilian "Emil" Mătăsăreanu (July 19, 1966 — February 28, 1997) first met at a Gold's Gym in Venice, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in 1989. Phillips and Mătăsăreanu had mutual interests in weightlifting, bodybuilding, and firearms. Both were big men; Larry Phillips Jr. standing at 6 feet (1.83 m) and weighing 230 pounds (104 kg), and Emil Mătăsăreanu standing at 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) and weighing 270 pounds (122 kg).
Before meeting, Phillips was a habitual offender, responsible for multiple real estate scams and counts of shoplifting. His first arrest was in 1989 when he shoplifted $400 worth of merchandise, including two pairs of suits, at a Sears in Alhambra. He was living with his wife in Anaheim Hills at the time of his death.
Mătăsăreanu was born in Timișoara, Romania, to parents who relocated to Altadena, California, in 1974. He attended Pasadena High School. Growing up, it has been said he was bullied over his accent and weight. In an interview with his mother after his death, she said "bullying by schoolmates caused him to turn to computers as a refuge." She called her son "a sharpshooter and computer whiz" that "programmed arcade and video games." In August 1996 Mătăsăreanu "split up with his wife after having a seizure." The marriage produced two sons, who later filed a lawsuit for wrongful death. He got a degree through DeVry University's Pomona campus and was a qualified electrical engineer, running a relatively unsuccessful computer repair business, Dechebal Inc. He became an American citizen in 1988.
Hub AI
North Hollywood shootout AI simulator
(@North Hollywood shootout_simulator)
North Hollywood shootout
The North Hollywood shootout, also known as the Battle of North Hollywood, was a confrontation between two heavily armed and armored bank robbers, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu, and police officers in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles on February 28, 1997. Both robbers were killed, twelve police officers and eight civilians were injured, and numerous vehicles and other property were damaged or destroyed by the nearly 2,000 rounds of ammunition fired by the robbers and police.
At 9:16 a.m., Phillips and Mătăsăreanu entered and robbed Bank of America's North Hollywood branch. The robbers were confronted by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers when they exited the bank and a shootout between the officers and robbers ensued. The robbers attempted to flee the scene, Phillips on foot and Mătăsăreanu in their getaway vehicle, while continuing to exchange fire with the officers. The shootout continued onto a residential street adjacent to the bank until Phillips, mortally wounded, killed himself; Mătăsăreanu was incapacitated by officers three blocks away and bled to death before the arrival of paramedics more than an hour later.
Phillips and Mătăsăreanu had robbed at least two other banks previously, using similar methods involving using their automatic rifles to get past security doors, taking control of the entire bank, and firing weapons illegally obtained and modified for fully automatic fire. They were also suspects in two armored car robberies.
Standard-issue sidearms carried by most local patrol officers at the time were 9mm pistols or .38 Special revolvers; some patrol cars were also equipped with a 12-gauge shotgun. Phillips and Mătăsăreanu carried Norinco Type 56 rifles and a Bushmaster XM-15 Dissipator with a 100-round drum magazine, all of which had been illegally modified to be select-fire capable, as well as a Heckler & Koch HK91 rifle and a Beretta 92FS pistol. The robbers wore homemade body armor which successfully protected them from handgun rounds and shotgun pellets fired by the responding officers. An LAPD Metropolitan Division SWAT team eventually arrived with higher-powered weapons, but they had little effect on the heavy body armor used by the two perpetrators. The SWAT team also commandeered an armored car to evacuate the wounded. Several officers additionally equipped themselves with rifles from a nearby firearms dealer. The incident sparked debate on the need for patrol officers to upgrade their firepower to semi-auto rifles in preparation for similar situations in the future.
Due to the large number of injuries and rounds fired, equipment used by the robbers, and overall length of the shootout, it is regarded as one of the most intense and significant gun battles in U.S. police history. Combined, the two robbers had fired approximately 1,100 rounds in total, while approximately 650 rounds were fired by police. Another estimate is that a total of nearly 2,000 rounds were fired collectively.
Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. (September 20, 1970 — February 28, 1997) and Decebal Ștefan Emilian "Emil" Mătăsăreanu (July 19, 1966 — February 28, 1997) first met at a Gold's Gym in Venice, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in 1989. Phillips and Mătăsăreanu had mutual interests in weightlifting, bodybuilding, and firearms. Both were big men; Larry Phillips Jr. standing at 6 feet (1.83 m) and weighing 230 pounds (104 kg), and Emil Mătăsăreanu standing at 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) and weighing 270 pounds (122 kg).
Before meeting, Phillips was a habitual offender, responsible for multiple real estate scams and counts of shoplifting. His first arrest was in 1989 when he shoplifted $400 worth of merchandise, including two pairs of suits, at a Sears in Alhambra. He was living with his wife in Anaheim Hills at the time of his death.
Mătăsăreanu was born in Timișoara, Romania, to parents who relocated to Altadena, California, in 1974. He attended Pasadena High School. Growing up, it has been said he was bullied over his accent and weight. In an interview with his mother after his death, she said "bullying by schoolmates caused him to turn to computers as a refuge." She called her son "a sharpshooter and computer whiz" that "programmed arcade and video games." In August 1996 Mătăsăreanu "split up with his wife after having a seizure." The marriage produced two sons, who later filed a lawsuit for wrongful death. He got a degree through DeVry University's Pomona campus and was a qualified electrical engineer, running a relatively unsuccessful computer repair business, Dechebal Inc. He became an American citizen in 1988.
Recent media