Infamous America - NORTH HOLLYWOOD ROBBERY Ep. 6 | “Code 4: No Further Assistance”

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

Members of the SWAT team confront the remaining robber and finally end the North Hollywood Shootout. Elements of the 44-minute gunbattle spark immediate controversy, and the event accelerates major changes in police departments across America. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join To advertise on this podcast, please email: [e-mail] For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like The Explorers, History of the Great War, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For more than half an hour, bank robbers Larry Phillips and Emil Mada Saranu had owned the area around Bank of America branch 384 on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood. Their body armor and illegally modified assault rifles gave them a huge advantage over local patrol officers and detectives. After a sustained gun battle, the robbers began their escape. They moved away from the bank and into a residential neighborhood. Their plan, whatever it had been, started to collapse. It was the closing phase of the robbery-turned shootout.

At about the same time, three members of the Metro Division SWAT team arrived with assault rifles of their own. Their first job was to provide cover for a group of rescuers who were going to collect the severely injured officers and civilians. While the rescuers worked, one of the robbers, Larry Phillips, suffered two fatal gunshot wounds. One was self-inflicted, though it was hard to tell if it was on purpose or an accident. But if his own bullet hadn't killed him, he would have died as the result of a bullet that struck him in the back of the neck and was fired by one of the officers at the scene. One gunman was down, the one who was responsible for most of the destruction. But the second gunman, Emil Mada Serranu, was still on the loose. He was trying to escape in a 1985 Chevy celebrity that had been shot to hell.

On the LAPD radios, the command was given for SWAT to handle the takedown of Mada Serrano. The three SWAT officers finished their work with the wounded, piled into a police car, and gunned the engine. The final standoff would take place on Archwood Street, a simple residential street in the San Fernando Valley that most people had never heard of before February 28, 1997. But on that day, a Friday, it was the center of the nation's attention. While the LAPD brought the situation to a close, the nation watched live on TV. Five news helicopters hovered above the action and broadcast every moment to viewers from coast to coast. Those viewers had already seen Larry Phillips fall in real time.

It was like a blockbuster Hollywood action film, except it was all real. And the viewers settled in for the finale. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling the story of the North Hollywood robbery and the unprecedented battle between two gunmen and the Los Angeles Police Department. This is episode six. Code 4. No further assistance. SWAT officers Rick Massa, Don Anderson, and Steve Gomez had escorted an armored car that the LAPD

used to evacuate injured civilians and officers at the intersection of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Archwood Street. As the officers provided cover for the rescue operations, operation, Rick Mesa noticed that officers east of their position were trying to get their retention. The officers were in the residential neighborhood along Archwood Street and were waving for the SWAT team to join them. The SWAT team knew the gunman had vacated the bank parking lot, but they didn't know the current status of the robbers. The radio in the SWAT team's car didn't have access to the main police frequency. It only had access to the exclusive SWAT frequency. At the moment, the SWAT team's objective was to help evacuate the wounded.

So, when Massa saw officers waving at him, he assumed they needed help with more wounded. The three men of the SWAT team piled into their car and floored it across the intersection. As they rolled down Archwood, they saw a group of officers on the right side of the road that were gathered around a person who lay in the dust. They didn't know it at the time, but it was Larry Phillips. They also still didn't know that the Field Command Center had instructed all regular officers to stay away from the second gunmen. The Command Center said the apprehension of Matasarano was the sole responsibility of SWAT. But the three members of the SWAT team would only learn that fact through circumstance,

and they would have to catch up to Madisarano first. When Larry Phillips died, Mada Seranu was a couple blocks ahead of him in the country. car. Matasarano had been shot at least once and was presumably losing blood. He had been limping badly before he got in the car, and now his steering was erratic. The car swept across lanes and bounced off curbs. Despite LAPD blockades at intersections in the neighborhood, there were still civilians driving down the street. As Mada Seranu lurched down Archwood, he came grill to grill with a maroon sedan. Mada Seraanu opened the passenger side door and pulled himself out.

He waved at the car, which must have been a terrifying sight for the driver. Mada Seraanu was 6'1 and weighed 300 pounds, and he was dressed in dark clothes and wore a black ski mask. The driver put the car in reverse and backed away. When Mada Sirano realized he wasn't going to be able to steal the car, he fired at it with his assault rifle. Then he shut the passenger door of his car and hobbled around the front of the vehicle. His limp was noticeably worse, but he crawled back into his car and continued east down Archwood Street. Next, he blew through a stop sign and nearly collided with several vehicles. He bumped a blue four-door car.

The car screeched to a halt and the driver yelled at Matasarano. Matasarano opened his door and the driver saw a big man in a ski mask with an assault rifle. Maybe only then did the driver notice the shattered windows and bullet-riddled sides of Matasarano's car. The driver stepped on the gas pedal and sped away. Matasarano continued for 30 more feet before stopping in front of a 1962 Jeep gladiator pickup truck. Neither vehicle could get by the other. The driver of the pickup had seen that there was some sort of commotion between the two cars in front of him and the white car that now faced him. He didn't know what had happened, but those two cars were gone, and now he was squared off with the white car.

He saw the bullet holes in the white car and knew something was very wrong. He put his truck in reverse and turned to look through his rear window. Because he did, he didn't see Mada Seraanu raise his rifle and fire through his own windshield. The driver of the pickup was Bill Maher, not the TV personality with the show on HBO. This Bill Maher was a middle-aged guy who found a. found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had been working his way through town from the other side of the city and was completely unaware of the robbery in the shootout. He didn't have his radio on and he didn't notice the helicopters in the sky. As he neared the neighborhood that

was now ground zero, he saw that some streets were blocked with yellow police tape and some were blocked with police cars. But some of the police cars had started to move and he had ended up behind two other drivers as they wove through side streets to try to get to the major roads. All three cars had landed on Archwood Street, headed straight toward Amil Matasaranu. The first two cars had made it past the gunmen with little damage, but Matasarano was determined to take Bill Maher's pickup. As Mar looked over his shoulder and tried to back up, Matasarano fired a three-round burst that tore through Mar's front windshield. bullet fragments and or glass hit Marr in the right arm and grazed his face.

He decided to bail out and make a run for it. He turned off the engine but left the key in the ignition. And then, probably as a reflex and without thinking, he flipped the switch that turned off the fuel pump, or as he called it, the boost pump. That single, simple action was critical to ending the North Hollywood shootout. Marr jumped out of the truck and ran back up Archwood. He signaled to other drivers to turn around, and then he hurried toward a house to get off the street.

He banged on the door, but there was no answer. When he looked back toward his truck, he watched the masked man exit the beat-up Chevy and begin to load his weapons into the pickup. There wasn't time for Bill Maher or Emil Matasaranu to go much farther. Matasarano wasn't going anywhere anyway, since Bill Maher. had disabled his truck before he bailed out. But Matasarano didn't know that. He also didn't know that he was seconds away from being confronted by members of the LAPD SWAT team.

As Matasarano changed getaway vehicles, SWAT officers Don Anderson, Rick Massa, and Steve Gomez were speeding down Archwood in response to urgent signals from other officers. They thought they were on the way to pick up more wounded individuals. But as they crossed the intersection of Archwood and Radford, they saw the white Chevy getaway car and the Jeep pickup truck side by side in the street. Mada Seranu either spotted the fast approaching police car or had realized there was a problem with the pickup, and he got out. It was only then when the SWAT team members saw the hulking man in the ski mask that they

realized they had driven right up to one of the suspects. Madisarano, now using his Bushmaster XM-15 rifle with a 100-round magazine, opened fire. Don Anderson was driving the car, and he spun the vehicle and stomped on the brakes. The car screeched to a stop and an angle, a few feet from the front of the pickup. As the car turned, Steve Gomez fired at Madisarano from the passenger seat. Gomez's gunfire drove Mada Seranu away from the pickup and back to the car. front of his Chevy. Madaseranu leaned over the hood of his vehicle and rained gunfire on the three officers.

With parts of two vehicles between SWAT and himself, he had good cover. The officers exited the vehicle and fanned out behind it. Steve Gomez, who would become immortalized on the TV footage as the SWAT officer who was wearing a helmet and a vest on top of a T-shirt, shorts, and running shoes, shot Mada Seranu in the chest, but the bullet had no one. effect. It was stopped by the steel plates that reinforced Matasuranu's body armor. Rick Massa, firing from the back end of the vehicle, dropped down to the pavement, and realized he had a clear shot at Matasurano's legs from beneath the cars. He fired, and one of his bullets

broke Matasurano's leg. Matasurano started to topple, and Gomez and Anderson followed suit. They aimed for Matasurano's legs to bring him down. Unlike Larry Phillips, Emil Matasuranu didn't have any protective covering on his legs. He was shot dozens of times in the legs and ankles. He spun and twisted as he lost the ability to stand and fired a few wild rounds in different directions. Then, Matasarano held the weapon up with one hand and tossed it away. He slumped to the ground and leaned up against the front bumper of his getaway car. He raised a hand as high as he could.

and surrendered. The K-Cal-9 News helicopter above the scene captured the final firefight of the North Hollywood shootout. SWAT officers Rick Massa, Don Anderson, and Steve Gomez made a wide, slow sweep out from behind their car to find Mada Sauranu leaning against the Chevy. Massa grabbed Mada Sirano's rifle and moved it farther away from the shooter. They flipped Mada Sirano onto his stomach and handcuffed him. They pulled off his sweaty, bloody, bloody skin. ski mask. Rick Massa reported later that Mada Serrano asked the officers to shoot him and put an end to it. With the gunmen down and cuffed, dozens of officers swarmed Archwood Street to cover the scene. It was now 10.1 a.m. and dispatcher Twanya Bellard announced over the radio, be advised, there is one

suspect in custody. Then an officer from the scene of Mada Seraanu's capture responded with an update. Be advised, there are two suspects. In the suspects in custody. With Mada Seranu secure, the SWAT officers raced back to Laurel Canyon Boulevard to assist in clearing the bank. For hours, the area behind the Bank of America remained an active crime scene. There was still a belief that there could be additional suspects. It took more than an hour for officers to clear the residential neighborhood to make it safe

for emergency vehicles. By the time medical first responders could reach Emil Mada Seranu, the third 30-year-old husband, father, son, and bank robber had bled out and died on Archwood Street. The bodies of Phillips and Matasarano were fingerprinted and transferred to a nearby morgue. Dispatchers could finally issue a Code 4 call over the radio, which meant the situation was under control and no further assistance was needed. The shootout was over, but the investigation was just beginning. The next morning, the cover of the LA Times featured a picture by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Carolyn Cole of Mada Seranu's dirty, bloody face as he lay on the street in handcuffs.

The shot is from street level, and his head is framed by the tires of nearby cars. An officer is holding him down, and there are spent shell casings on the street in the foreground. By the time the newspaper came out, the LAPD might have known that. the identities of the gunmen, but they hadn't released the names to the public. News outlets reported that the gunmen were the only two fatalities. A total of 20 people had been shot by Phillips and Matasarano, and every one of them survived, including, of course, Officer Martin Whitfield. An estimated 1,700 rounds were fired during the shootout, 1,100 of which were fired by Phillips and Montessarano. By March 3rd, four days after the

the shootout, autopsies on the gunmen were done. There is still a debate about Larry Phillips' intent when he fired his last shot. In all likelihood, he took his own life. But some say the injuries to his hands caused him to accidentally discharge his weapon. The autopsy revealed that it doesn't really matter which was true. The bullet that hit him in the back of the neck right after he fired his shot would have killed him anyway. In addition to the fatal shots, he was wounded to 11 more times. Emil Matasaranu was shot 29 times, most of which were below the waist

and almost certainly happened during his intense final standoff with the SWAT team. He died of extensive blood loss. Almost immediately, the press questioned the decision to keep emergency services away from the scene for an hour. It was a controversy that would linger for years. Five days after the shootout, Phillips and Matasuranu were linked in the media to all the crimes associated with the high-incident bandits.

Their properties were searched. Addresses linked to Phillips didn't turn up much, but Matasurano's properties turned up additional weapons, gun parts, and literature on how to convert semi-automatic rifles to fully automatic rifles. But the most disturbing discovery wasn't directly related to the shootout. At a business space rented by Madisarano in Pasadena, authorities found a locked room above the offices. Inside, they found a 44-year-old woman with developmental disabilities who had no access to food, medicine, or a bathroom.

Authorities had speculated she was there alone for at least a week. Matasarano's mother, Valerie, was charged with false imprisonment in illegally operating an adult care facility. Later, she was convicted and spent 10 months in county jail. Authorities didn't find any of the roughly $1.5 million from the 1996 robberies. And in the summer of 1997, three months after the North Hollywood robbery, the LAPD closed its investigation. But the ramifications of the shootout were just beginning. In the weeks following the shootout, officers shared their stories with the media.

The civilians who were injured, revisited the scene, and posed for pictures in front of the bank and storefronts that had been shot out. The debate over enhanced firepower for the LAPD hit the front page of the L.A. Times just two days after the shootout. Rankin-file officers had been pushing proposals up the chain of command that called for more powerful weapons. Police Chief Willie Williams argued, you can't equip our general patrol officers with AK-47s. We're supposed to live in somewhat of a civilized society. Other top-ranking officers agreed that patrolmen with automatic weapons was an overreaction to an isolated incident.

They lost that argument. News outlets made heroes out of the officers who battled Larry Phillips and Emil Mada Serrano, and rightfully so. But the details of Mada Seranu's death were controversial and sparked a debate in the newspapers. Letters flooded newspaper offices. Many asked questions like, did the police allow Mada Seranu to bleed to death

by prohibiting emergency services from getting to him? Was the threat of additional suspects so great that it meant keeping medics away for that crucial hour? Some letters said Mada Seranu got what he deserved. Some said his treatment was another example of how the LAPD flaunted its power and operated by its own rules. A lawyer with a reputation for seeking out police brutality cases

sued the LAPD on behalf of Mada Seranu's sons. When the ruling finally came three years later, a U.S. District Court jury was split on whether officers had been negligent. There was no appeal and the lawsuit was eventually dropped. On the LAPD side, the chaos of the shootout was surpassed only by citywide riots like those in 1992. Early reports during the robbery said there were two robbers, and then three robbers, and then as many as five robbers.

Even as it became clear that there were two primary gunmen, there was still a huge area to check to make sure they were alone. This year, 2022, marked the 25th anniversary of the North Hollywood shootout. It's still a one-of-a-kind event in modern American history. It would have felt almost commonplace in the, Old West or the gangster era of the 1930s, but for two men to sustain a 44-minute gun battle with police on city streets in broad daylight, with half of it broadcast live on TV, that was unique. And it was one of the events that accelerated the distribution of military-grade weapons to

police departments across America. That process definitely didn't begin with the North Hollywood shootout. It has its roots in legislation in 1990 that allowed surplus military equipment to be used by local law enforcement to fight the failed war on drugs. For many police departments, that meant the formation of special weapons and tactics teams. By 1995, 89% of American cities with populations greater than 100,000 had SWAT teams. The next year, in 1996, the number grew when President Bill Clinton signed into law the 1033 program that expanded earlier laws. Just about any agency in the country could have military-grade weapons for free. All they had to do was pay shipping and handling.

But the impact of a televised gun battle in America's second biggest city couldn't be denied. The footage of dozens of police officers, who were almost helpless against just two shooters, was powerful for those who advocated for heavier weapons for law enforcement. In the two years that followed the shootout, $727 million worth of equipment was distributed across the country. It included safety and surveillance gear, but it also included military aircraft,

grenade launchers, and nearly 8,000 M-16 assault rifles, 600 of which went to the Los Angeles Police Department. Today, most LAPD patrol cars have firepower that's closer to the weapons that were only available to the SWATES, team in 1997. But even then, with the limitations of 1997, the LAPD stopped the gunman without losing a single officer or civilian. And it's probably safe to say that no other 44-minute period

in the department's history produced more citations for bravery than the one on February 28th. Sergeant Dean Haynes and Detective John Krulak, both retired, received Purple Hearts. Sergeant Haynes was one of the first responding officers, and one of the two, along with Officer Martin Whitfield, who parked his car in the middle of the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Archwood. Cruelach's partner, Detective Tracy Angelus, received a Purple Heart. She recovered from two gunshot wounds and returned to duty. She retired in 2021 as a 30-year veteran of the LAPD. Rookie Officer James Zaboravan was awarded the Medal of Valor, for using his body to shield detectives Angelus and Krulak during the earliest stages of the gunfight.

The detectives were not wearing body armor, and Zbora Vann sustained two serious gunshot wounds. He recovered and stayed on the force, and now holds the rank of sergeant. Don Anderson, Rick Massa, and Steve Gomez stayed on the SWAT team. Steve Gomez served the longest and retired in 2010. They were all awarded the Medal of Valor. Officers Todd Schmitz and Anthony Kubunich, who used their squad car to rescue officer Stuart Guy and Detective Tracy Angeles in the Valley Plaza Mall parking lot, received medals of valor.

Stuart Guy's seven-year career ended that day. He recovered from the devastating gunshot that broke his leg, but suffered serious post-traumatic stress, like many officers who were involved in the shootout. He returned to his native Panama and became a minister. On the 15th anniversary of the shootout, he received the Purple Heart. The LA Times noted, in all, 17 members of the LAPD received a Medal of Valour for actions during the shootout. Dispatchers Tuania Bellard and Guadalupe de la Cruz were named ABC Evening News Persons of the Week and were highlighted on national television. Officer Martin Whitfield, who was one of the most critically wounded, left the L.A. P.D. after his long recovery period. He still has the scars and still has pain every morning. But he and his girlfriend Kim got married, and he worked in private security for a while before

moving back to his hometown of Indianapolis and opening a seafood restaurant. But he hasn't forgotten his time with the force. And his Twitter handle is LA 9L89. Assistant Bank Manager John Villagrana, who came closer to the shooters than any other non-law enforcement person, felt a sense of loyalty to his customers and his employees, and went back to work at the bank. Bank of America Branch 384 was repaired over the weekend and opened for business as usual on the Monday after the shootout. Twenty-five years later, it's still there, and so is the dentist office of Dr. Jorge Montez across the street in the Valley Plaza Mall. The mall has changed quite a bit in the past 25 years.

Some of the family businesses are now big retail stores, but Dr. Montez still has his second floor office. Montes received and still receives enormous credit for helping Detective Krulak and Officer Zaboravan. After the dust settled, both men and some of their family members shared tearful reunions with Montez. Montez and Zaboravan became close friends, and Zaboravan still visits Montez at the little second floor. office to this day. For more information on the North Hollywood Shootout, we'd like to recommend a website, northholywood shootout.net that was critical to this production, and the podcast, Shootout, the Battle for North Hollywood, available on Audible. Next time on Infamous America, we're going to begin a new tradition. We're going to highlight some smaller stories from some of

the bigger cities in America, all of which have rich histories. And when you're talking about cities with rich histories of infamy, there's no better place to start than New Orleans. We'll see you next time for stories from the Big Easy on Infamous America. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week for new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month.

This season was researched and written by Jamie Lyko, original music by Rob Valier. Copy editing by me, Chris Wimmer, and I'm your host and producer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, or on our social media channels. We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrell Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube.

Just search for Infamous America Podcast. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast. podcast network. Please visit airwavemedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin's World, History of the Great War, and many more. Thanks for listening.