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Remembering the 1997 gun battle in North Hollywood
Dylan Sarem, 11, peers into the shot-up getaway car used by bank robbers in the Feb. 28, 1997 shootout with police, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007, during a police commemoration of the event that changed the way police forces arm themselves and continues to touch the lives of those involved, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007, in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Sarem's family lived near the shootout. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
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A Los Angeles Police Department armored personnel carrier maneuvers down Victory Boulevard, Friday, Feb. 28, 1997 in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Police broke up a blotched bank robbery with a group of men dressed like commandos. (AP Photo/Michael Tweed)
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An unidentified masked armed gunman is seen in a parking lot across the street from the Bank of America in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles Friday, Feb. 28, 1997. The gunman was shot dead by Los Angeles Police Department officers. Wearing commando garb, several heavily armed, masked robbers bungled a bank heist, then fired hundreds of shots in a gun battle getaway try that left two dead, at least 11 hurt and a broad trail of damage. (AP Photo/Mike Meadows)
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Los Angeles Police and SWAT officers surround a house in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Friday, Feb. 28, 1997 where a suspected bank robber is supposed to be hiding. Police broke up a botched bank robbery earlier by a group of men dressed like commandos. Two suspects were killed and numerous officers were wounded. (AP Photo/Michael Tweed)
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Los Angeles police officers take cover behind police cars, two with windows shattered from gunfire, outside a Bank of America branch in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles Friday, Feb. 28, 1997. Two robbers were killed and several people injured in the shootout during the bungled robbery. (AP Photo/Mike Meadows)
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Remembering the 1997 gun battle in North Hollywood
It was like nothing the country had seen: Body armor-wearing gunmen spraying more than 1,000 rounds of automatic gunfire at responding police officers.
The gun battle in North Hollywood was broadcast on live television for more than 40 minutes, and Tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of the running shootout outside of a Bank of America.
Dennis Zine was one of the LAPD officers who responded to the scene. He later became an L.A. city councilman. Zine talked to KPCC's Alex Cohen on Morning Edition about the chaos and how it shaped the tactics of law enforcement going forward.
Here are some of the highlights:
On how police approached bank robberies in 1997:
We surround the place, “come out with your hands up” … that was the tactic, that was the procedure. We were never informed, or trained, in a situation where the individuals would come out shooting, especially with AK-47s, shooting everything in sight. We were ill-equipped with training, ill-equipped with weaponry – in fact, there were officers who drove over to B&B gun sales, which is now closed, to procure rifles they could utilize to neutralize the situation … It was a tragic situation, but it brought law enforcement to a new horizon to say “You need to be prepared … in case a situation like this were to happen again."
When I arrived, the shooting had ceased. They were looking for a third possible individual. SWAT had arrived from the academy, they had jumped in their vehicle, they were in plainclothes. They engaged a second individual, a shooting took place and he was neutralized, the other individual committed suicide as he was fleeing the scene. When I arrived, it was a static situation … it was a unique situation I had never seen in my career. This was very frightening ... I spoke to one of the officers, a motorcycle officer who worked for me – he fired multiple rounds from his weapon, and he said they were like supermen, the bullets were just bouncing off.
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