Cops, Citizens Show Heroism As Bullets Fly

Even in the midst of chaos and terror, there was grace under fire.

There was quick-thinking dentist Jorge Montes, who grabbed bandages and hydrogen peroxide and began cleaning the wounds of two injured police officers who had stumbled into his Valley Plaza office during the shootout that followed a bank robbery.

There was the armored-car driver who powered his vehicle onto the bank property, fending off the gunmen’s fire long enough to pick up two wounded officers and two wounded customers.

There were heroes everywhere Friday morning, many of them wearing the dark-blue uniforms of the Los Angeles Police Department, but many others just simple citizens.

“There were a lot of heroic actions taken by police officers and members of the community,” said LAPD Chief Willie Williams.

For the Los Angeles Police Department, whose image has been tarnished in cases ranging from Rodney King to O.J. Simpson, the television images were of swift and decisive action.

“The thin blue line is made out of the men and women who are out there who put themselves in harm’s way every day,” Williams said.