Comparison of the bank's exterior a couple days apart. Noubar Torossian, the gentleman whose need for a cigarette was cut short when Matasareanu decided to carjack Bill Marr outside his house got his opportunity to speak to the L.A Daily News. It was to be replaced with a different form of urgency. Getaway vehicle rendered useless, holed, its windows blown out, all four tires flat, in a residential area of North Hollywood three blocks away from where his partner has just died, Matasareanu attempts to carjack a new ride, a yellow 1963 Jeep Gladiator pickup truck. Results: Solved. Matasareanu, 27, and Phillips, 31, were believed to have pulled off a number of earlier bank heists in the area. Matasareanu and his family had quietly occupied this house with Emil moving out to the Pepperdale Drive house in December 1996. Note the bushes have been trimmed. We have pea shooters compared to what these guys have.". Quite how they magically came up with this address is beyond our capability to dig out, and remains somewhat suspicious to us to this day. Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30, was a scraggly haired, 283-pound native of Romania who suffered painful seizures after being struck in the head by a mental patient at his mother's home-operated day-care center. Larry didnt like the way American women always talked back.. 304 East Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena. And I'll never forget that sound. Larry Phillips and Emil Matasareanu opened fire on cops and bystanders after robbing a Bank of America in North Hollywood. It was also noted that an old muscle car bearing the licence plate 1EMIL1 was parked at the rear of the property and covered with a tarpaulin. He had brain surgery. An injured Phillips took his own life and Matasareanu surrendered, but bled out at the scene. I have heard from sources whom shall remain nameless that the day took on a dark carnival atmosphere. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said today (Thursday) that Emil Matasareanu was downed by 29 bullets, including a deep wound to his thigh that caused him to bleed to death. It is curious to note that we have found no official communiqu naming Phillips and Matasareanu as the perpetrators; the media seem to be the first people to use their names, and the LAPD followed suit some time later. ``The way they struck and the way they handled their weapons, one would have to expect that they got some training somewhere, said Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Emil (Mtsreanu) Pete (Mtsreanu) Gender Both male Birth Date September 20, 1970 (Phillips) July 19, 1966 (Mtsreanu) Place of Birth Los Angeles, California, U.S. (Phillips) Timioara, Romania (Mtsreanu) Date of Death February 28, 1997 (both; aged 27 and 30) Place of Death North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. Job "If you look at the civilians who were injured, the policemen who were injured, the cars that were destroyed, it was amazing that nobody died. This was apparently done out of deference for her son being killed only five days previous. Even Matasareanus choice of a wife fell under Phillips influence, he said. When Emil had left DeVry University in 1987 with his electrical engineering degree in hand he had gone straight to building a business. An engineer by training and a political dissident who had been jailed, he pushed the boy in school. Occupation: Unrevealed Stories that have been told to us from within the extended Phillips family speak of this property being a communal hang out, and certainly one of a number of mailing addresses for Phillips Jr as this is where the driving licence that held his correct name was registered. His left ankle had been broken by gunfire, as had his left knee, and like Phillips he had a large chunk of flesh (measured at some six inches long) chewed out of his wrist/forearm by gunfire, blinded in the right eye, with multiple gunshot wounds to his buttocks, hips and thighs it would be totalled that he was carrying twenty nine different wounds. They hadn't spoken since July. But in the time it took them to place the money on a cart and leave the building, the LAPD had surrounded the bank, and the SWAT team was on its way. On Tuesday, officers found a mentally disabled woman, covered in urine and feces, locked in a dark room at a Pasadena business owned by Emil Matasareanu and his mother, Valerie Nicolescu. Matasareanu's body would be formally identified by a family friend, not his wife, not his mother, a family friend. A lawsuit was filed against the LAPD and involved officers by the family of deceased robbery suspect Emil Matasareanu, claiming that officers let the wounded robber die by delaying medical care. It's not a macho thing. Dr. Jorge O. Montes, who would receive an award, risked his life to treat the wounded cops. South of the bank, Carlos Lemus, an employee of the Goodyear tire shop, was walking toward its ATM when he realized he'd forgotten his billfold. Out back, their bullet-ridden getaway car, a destroyed LAPD black-and-white, and an armored car that helped rescue cops and civilians gathers crowds. It was written by Smith, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Want to solve climate change? That piece of information? As previously mentioned it soon became apparent that the two 1996 takeovers in the southern end of the San Fernando Valley had been the work of these two, CCTV and modus operandi was a faultless match. . View of the old Milosevic home in 2021 where the V100 bulldozed through. The bodies of Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mtsreanu, perpetrators of the North Hollywood shootout of 1997. The detectives who went to deliver the next of kin notification were met by his mother, whose anguished screams could be heard outside in the road when she was informed of her son's death. But it ruins me., The fragments of video footage of the shootout are especially important to the father, he said, because I have no pictures of my son except what I cut out of newspapers.. "It was like the movie 'Heat,' bullets spraying everywhere," recalled Lantz, now a corporal, while revisiting the scene. The discovery of this address must have come late in the day, as the search warrant for it was slated to be executed the following day. Photo Credit - LA Daily News. The kiosk would take 150 rounds, some of which are visible today. ", At another nearby shop, Miguel Lopez was installing a battery in the car of an off-duty police officer when the shooting started. First came the news that Los Angeles Sheriff's Department had authorized the immediate deployment of AR15 rifles to all field supervisors. Despite the threat, Phillips avoided prosecution for the illegally concealed handgun taken from his waistband as he was arrested with a forged $25,000 note. The case went to trial in 2000 and resulted in a hung jury. He had brain surgery months before his death and was estranged from a wife and two kids. Saturday 1st March 1997 would be nicknamed 'The day of the locust'. The nation then watched the terror unfold on live TV as news helicopters broadcast the battle now known as the North Hollywood shootout. The cash was never found. The FBILA Bank Squad received information that Matasareanu had been a patron at a Northridge gun store, where he was well known for purchasing 7.62x39mm ammunition. Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasareanu shot at everything in their path - including police, bystanders, and a news helicopter - in an attempt to get away. The brother also became his victim, finding that his brother was using his name and Social Security number as his aliases. The 2026 N. Sinaloa address was Emil's mother's house at the time. For their heroism, 19 officers would receive medals of valor.Advertisement, One seriously wounded officer who later quit the force to become a minister said: "I heard the devil; he told me: 'You're gonna die, you're gonna die.' She said she hadn't spoken to her son since Christmas. He hated cops because of what they did to me . "The way they struck and the way they handled their weapons, one would have to expect that they got some training somewhere," said Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Or were they just setting the stage for what they would be getting into? That licence plate, complete with an added bullet hole was returned to him and now hangs in Mr Robbins house. You fall back on your training - the best in the world," recalled Zboravan, an award-winning sergeant now serving as an assistant watch commander at Northeast Division. One party was a serving police officer at the scene of Phillips body; the other was a family member who visited Phillips body at North Mission Road. Matasareanu v. Daryl Gates, et al Federal Civil Lawsuit California Central District Court , Case No. We put our lives on the line. Despite earlier reports that a third suspect may have been involved in Friday's attempted robbery, McBride said investigators now believe that Matasareanu and Phillips were the only assailants in that incident, as well as the two other robberies. He used his brains. Somehow, it appears that it just got missed. The North Hollywood shootout was a confrontation between two heavily armed and armored bank robbers, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mtsreanu, and members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, United States on February 28, 1997. According to the Coroner's report Phillips had nineteen firearms related wounds, inflicted by eleven separate gunshot strikes. Privacy tarp hangs from the safehouses' garage door. The interior of the Bank of America branch the Monday morning after the shootout. They were both killed by head shots that bypassed their body armor. 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out AZ Movies. Cook seemed to be prepared, even eager it seemed to accept that Phillips and Matasareanu's deaths would at last close the file on her husband's murder that had remained unsloved for the previous two years. I wouldnt say he was a criminal genius, the brother said, but he was very intelligent. Neighbours would later remember them as a quiet family who were always up and out of the house early and who seemed to have a vast fleet of vehicles. LAPD Commander, Tim McBride released a quote stating that Phillips and Matasareanu's potential ties to paramilitary groups was being investigated, a route that the FBI would also later explore, both explorations garnered zero results. Like drugged. The gunmen in "Heat" had nothing on these two. The man, who said he has been interviewed by police and the FBI and is not a suspect, declined to talk about several significant points in the case, saying he was admonished that his comments could impede the investigation. Some SWAT members had been working out at the LAPD academy and arrived in gym shorts and bulletproof vests. Nothing was overlooked. "LAPD shined that day," said Lantz, who has had three knee surgeries. ", Copyright 2023 LAPPL Reaching further back to 1993 RHD found a takeover conducted by three men of an armoured car in Littleton, Colorado; an area very close to Phillips 'home turf' and the town that would become tragically famous only two short years later for the massacre at Columbine High School. He bled to death while police, concerned about reports of a third masked gunman, searched the area. Unable to start the Jeep however, he soon finds himself engaged in a fresh . Scary," said Abdo, an Armenian immigrant from Iran. Though never charged locally for fraud, Phillips maintained a residence in Denver as well, and was convicted there in 1992 of a swindle in which he rented out vacant houses he did not own. We put on these badges to help them. A Pasadena police department report said Mayo's room had a nauseating odour of faeces and urine, with only a bucket being present to serve ablutionary needs. There's so much going on. Investigative teams got the wrong end of the stick and would pursue and investigate one Larry Santos from Decatur, Georgia who was a musician and had absolutely zero connection to the now infamous bank robber. Everything he did was completely thought out. Larry was a pretty gifted kid; thats all I can say. They were also believed to have robbed an armored car in June 1995; during that robbery, a guard was killed. We are sure it must have been investigated but any official register of such an investigation is beyond our view at this time. Investigators said today (Tuesday) they are looking for Jeanette Theresa Federico, who is believed to be the wife of Larry Phillips Jr. Phillips was killed along with Emil Matasareanu after they robbed a Bank of America branch Feb. 28. Twenty years ago today, on Feb. 28, 1997, two men armed with fully automatic weapons and clad in heavy body armor did more than rob the Bank of America at 6600 Laurel Canyon Blvd. Despite Phillips record and the officers feeling that they were planning a robbery, both men got off lightly, serving less than four months. As a result, police departments in Los Angeles County and beyond now have access to more powerful weapons, including assault rifles and shotguns with plug rounds. 1997 North Hollywood Shootout Autopsy report on Larry Phillips Jr. & Emil Matasareanu. Clare Carey as Frank's Wife. In recent years he lived with her on and off in her Glendale apartment, neighbors there said, but she moved into a rest home and died in 1994, having cut all contact with her nine brothers and sisters. The film tells the story of the ill-equipped heroes who confronted heavily armed bank robbers Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasareanu. The most critical part to the LAPD and FBI remained unseen though, the whereabouts of Phillips home and his spouse, Jeanette Federico. Tim McBride. But things had begun to unravel by 1993. LOS ANGELES - The parents of a bandit gunned down by police during a botched bank robbery say that their son had an "attitude problem" and that his brazen assault was "like suicide. Shortly after she turned herself in, she led authorities to a home that she and Larry shared in Anaheim Hills. She said health authorities forced Matasareanu out of the home. That Larry Phillips Jr had sustained a gunshot wound to his forehead. He had brain surgery months before his death and was estranged from a wife and two kids. Recently, after the first of a series of bank robberies that authorities believe Phillips and Matasareanu committed, his fortunes showed some improvement: Matasareanu and his wife rented a sprawling multilevel home in Rowland Heights. The business had never taken off in any form, stories of Matasareanu schlepping his accounting software for budget prices whilst dressed in flip flops and baggy sweat pants have been given to us first hand. In 1991, Phillips was arrested by Orange police after a mortgage broker reported discovering that deeds of trust he bought from Phillips were forged. They were making off with cash when police arrived and the gunfight erupted. Matasareanu's final house (2015). He said, All you guys are alike, the system is all screwed up, Smith said. Before he left [in 1996], he said, I cant find [her]. n cele din urm, Mtsreanu a fost mpucat de 29 de ori, dar nc tria cnd poliitii l-au imobilizat. He was driving down the road with his wife and John Chase, an accomplice, in the car, along with several weapons, when he passed a car of FBI agents going the other way. PASADENA, Calif. (AP) _ The parents of a bandit gunned down by police during a botched bank robbery say their son had an ``attitude problem and that his brazen assault was ``like suicide., ``Never I heard that he fight with someone, Viorel Matasareanu, 77, said Sunday of his son Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, who he had brought with him from their native Romania. ", VIDEO: Sgt. "Forgetting my wallet was the luckiest thing I ever did," said Lemus, 59, who still works at Mountain View Tire. Hed say, Hey Pop, ever ride in a Jaguar? . In Phillips case his residence would not be identified until some weeks later when his wife, Jeanette Federico, finally surrendered herself in Colorado. Matasareanu and his wife and young son were living with Nicolescu and running a home-care service for the mentally disabled. Detectives and officer taking cover behind bullet-riddled black and white and detective vehicles. Copyright 1997 by United Press International. LAPD spokesman Jason Lee said all three weapons resemble the AK-47 and that it is illegal to possess any of these rifles in California. The shootout didn't end there for Caprarelli. Records indicate that Matasareanu had occasional income as a computer software consultant but that his primary source of income was Dechebal Inc., the board-and-care home his mother operated in a Pasadena building they jointly owned. On Friday two men clad in ski masks and neck-to-ankle Kevlar armor stormed a Bank of America branch in the Los Angeles suburb of North Hollywood, toting an arsenal of guns. The final entry regarding Phillips autopsy is one I have wrestled with for a long time, a matter of writing it firmly enough to show what we can see and have been told, yet delicately enough to not appear accusatory. They were both killed by shots to the head, left unprotected by the body armor. Interestingly this vehicle was never seized under Federal Asset Forfeiture. For Matasareanu and Phillips, suspected of pulling off a number of sophisticated bank heists, the North Hollywood robbery was to be their biggest yet. Suspects: Foul play is not suspected in her disappearance. in North Hollywood. The reason is society tells you you have to have a 9-to-5 job until you retire at 65. That wasnt for him. Over $1.5million was still missing, both women knew they would have to face the authorities soon enough, to disclose what they each knew of their husband's activities and what they knew of the missing volume of Bank of America's cash. In it they found both more and less than they ever expected. A quote I once read about this event comes back to me now and if I recall it correctly it went something like this: 'The neighbourhood suffered two assaults, the first by the two masked men and the second a day later by the looky-loos and the press'. On April 2nd, 1925 nineteen year old Elva Arlene Pullen married twenty-four year old Earl Robert Phillips of 2121 Avenue F, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa. The North Hollywood siege ended at 10:01 a.m. As the gunfire suddenly ceased in front of her Archwood home, Anna Kazanchyan crouched inside with her two young children watching it play out on TV. They do know, however, that Matasareanu and Phillips had been acquaintances since at least Oct. 23, 1993, when police caught them with a carload of weapons and military gear, including AK-47s, 9-mm handguns, six smoke grenades, two homemade explosives and a gas mask. ", "Never I heard that he fight with someone," Viorel Matasareanu, 77, said yesterday of his son, Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, whom he brought with him from Romania. Larry Phillips was a slightly different matter; two addresses popped up immediately. He knew that every time I came in contact with police something bad happened.. Emil Dechebal Matasareanu had epilepsy. The truth appears to have been vastly different; the business was all but abandoned, residing in an unfinished basement at the East Orange Grove Boulevard address and consisting of nothing more than a few boxes of long forgotten parts and with, as far as we can make out, no 'employees' bar himself, and as a cherry to top the cake One must ask the question, why such an increase on the projected earnings? Third, late in the day came another breakthrough. He was a criminal genius.. Denver Gestopo units terminate a man for no reason, then plant a gun to say he pointed a gun at them. It was. Imaged below are the collated headers of all Phillips wounds, taken from the coroner's report. 2. The media continued in their hunt for information. Police in suburban Glendale said the robbers were the same men arrested there in 1993 in a car full of high-powered weapons, smoke bombs and disguises. During the robberies, they wielded machine guns and exhibited military tactics. 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