L.A. Police Believe Shootout Was Work Of ‘Ak-47’ Bandits

Authorities have identified two masked riflemen who laid siege to a North Hollywood neighborhood Friday, saying they are believed to be the “AK-47” bandits who robbed two banks last May and were arrested in 1993 on weapons charges.

Los Angeles police declined to release their names pending further investigation of their backgrounds. Authorities in suburban Glendale said the duo served short jail terms in 1993, after being arrested in that city while driving with a car laden with weapons. In the Glendale case, officers pulled over the men’s rented car for speeding and recovered an AK-47 assault rifle, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, ski masks, bulletproof vests and several other weapons. Both men, then ages 27 and 24, were armed but didn’t attempt to shoot, said Sgt. Rick Young, Glendale police spokesman.

Young also declined to identify the pair, who initially faced up to eight years in prison for conspiracy to commit robbery and unlawful weapons activity, both felonies. They were convicted only of a weapons charge and sentenced to fewer than three months in jail, Young said.

Police remained convinced Saturday that the men acted alone when they burst into a Bank of America branch and then terrorized a San Fernando Valley neighborhood with a barrage of automatic weapons fire.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams said their names could be released after the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division take some actions over the weekend. He did not elaborate.

Police on Saturday noted the remarkable similarities between Friday’s assault and two robberies at San Fernando Valley Bank of America branches in May. In both cases, beefy gunmen in dark ski masks and clothing barged into the banks and, shooting into the ceiling, ordered patrons onto the ground. Those tactics closely match the ones used by Friday’s assailants.

In the North Hollywood neighborhood where residents had hunkered down for hours Friday, there was lingering anxiety for some and a nearly giddy sense of relief for others.

Tracy Fisher had been approaching the bank’s automatic teller machine the day before when both she and her dog were shot. Fisher was in a cast Saturday morning with a toe wound, her hands still shaking as she clutched a cup of coffee.

She found returning to the scene more difficult than she expected. “Every noise I heard frightened me,” Fisher said. “Physically, I know I’ll heal. It’s the other stuff that will take longer.”

The anxiety and subsequent relief resonated deeply for the many immigrants in the neighborhood who thought they had left machine gun fire and bloodshed in their homelands. Moses Rivera, kept away from his Ben Avenue house until close to midnight, was reminded of his youth in El Salvador.

It wasn’t only the locals who were reliving Friday’s shootout, as hundreds of curiosity seekers re-created the route of the gunman - strolling from the bank and then around the corner along Archwood Street. Along the way, adults and children stuck their fingers into bullet holes, scavenged spent slugs out of the earth and studied the furrow of dirt where one of the gunmen fell.

The confused feelings provoked by the episode - the thrill of real-life drama and the repulsion of the violence - was evident in one 13-year-old boy who fondled an AK-47 slug.

“I’ve never held one before. It feels good,” said Keith Johnson, 13, of Van Nuys, who caught himself and added: “People shouldn’t do this to other people.”

Los Angeles police officers took an official stance that they were just carrying on business as usual, but they had trouble concealing their pride in how they had responded to the robbery.

“Our guys did good,” said one sergeant to another.

Williams seconded that sentiment. He said he could not fault officers who took matters into their own hands before supervisors arrived - even those who borrowed seven rifles and ammunition from a gun store.

“When faced with overwhelming firepower, they had to do some things with tactics and training that weren’t in the book,” Williams said, adding: “I might have been right there with them.”