Freq Of Nature

LAPD bears shootout scars
[Source: Daily News]

Photo of an LAPD police car from the N. Hollywood incident

By Holly Edwards

NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- Bullet marks still mar the cinder block walls and wrought-iron fences surrounding the Bank of America in North Hollywood, the site of one of the fiercest gun battles in the city's history.

Five years ago this Thursday, two masked men armed with automatic weapons and body armor robbed the bank at 6600 Laurel Canyon Blvd., then marched confidently down the street in terrifying scenes caught unforgettably by helicopter-borne television cameras.

The robbers sprayed thousands of bullets at officers, bystanders and the surrounding neighborhood for 45 minutes before they were killed. Ten police officers and six bystanders were wounded.

Like the pockmarks left by the shower of bullets, the indelible marks of the gunbattle are still riddled throughout the city -- in the way the Los Angeles Police Department responds to armed suspects, the public's perception of the LAPD, and the personal lives of the officers who risked their lives in the standoff.

Many of the responding police officers say they have coped with the lingering effects of traumatic stress -- depression, nightmares and flashbacks -- similar to those experienced by battle-scarred soldiers.

"I'm not the same person and I still think about the shootout every single day," said LAPD Officer John Caprarelli, 44, one of the officers involved in the gunfight.

"For months and months, I had nightmares where I was back in some part of the shootout. I was haunted by questions of why and what if, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Stress will do very strange things to you."

Caprarelli said he still relives moments of the shootout, like running for his life in a hail of bullets, hearing his wounded comrades screaming for help over the radio, and staring into the eyes of Larry Phillips before the 26-year-old robber was shot and killed by police.

The other robber, Emil Matasareanu, 30, was killed by members of the LAPD Special Weapons and Tactics team after he commandeered a pickup from a man who ran for his life after being injured by flying shrapnel.

Since the shootout, three of the officers involved have committed suicide, and many have sought help for depression and substance abuse problems, said Sgt. Keith Moreland, supervisor of the LAPD employee assistance unit.

While Moreland said he does not believe the officers' suicides were the direct result of the shootout, he said it is common for officers involved in life-and-death situations to experience despair and anxiety that can worsen if left untreated.

In all, 21 LAPD officers have killed themselves in the past decade, compared to 14 deaths in the line of duty during the same period, he said. Nationally, the suicide rate of police officers is double that of the general population.

"Police officers are helpers, and somehow we get the impression that we're above asking for help," Moreland said. "It also takes a different breed to be a police officer. We tend to hit the streets with a higher octane level than other people."

Since the shootout, the LAPD has tripled the number of psychologists in its Behavior Science Unit to 21, and is trying to prevent emotional problems among officers rather than simply respond to them, said Dr. Debbie Glaser, chief police psychologist for the LAPD.

"We have psychologists out there talking to officers every day now and we're not waiting for them to ask for help," Glaser said, adding that more than 300 officers were required to meet with counselors after the North Hollywood shootout. "It's always stressful to be a police officer and there are always a lot of distressed officers. But we're trying to provide more support and make it less stressful."

In addition to bolstered emotional support, the LAPD boosted the firepower available to its officers after the shootout.

Officers at the scene said their 9mm handguns had no effect on the robbers, who were wearing full body armor, and that there were few places to hide from the armor-piercing bullets wielded by the robbers.

During the standoff, frustrated police officers ran to the now-defunct B&B Gun Shop in North Hollywood, where they grabbed high-powered weapons and ammunition.

"We deal with people with guns every day, but once we realized we were dealing with weapons of war, the whole atmosphere changed and everyone was on edge," said Stuart Guy, 37, a former LAPD officer who was seriously wounded in the gunfight and has since become a minister. "Bullets were flying like rain drops and we were all scared out of our minds."

Guy nearly bled to death before two fellow officers drove into the gunfire, pulled him into the patrol car, backed out of the area at high speed, and drove Guy to a waiting ambulance.

"The way I got shot up, I knew they shot everything out of me that wanted to be a police officer," said Guy, who is a minister at Crenshaw Christian Center in South Central Los Angeles. "I felt violated and raped of everything police work meant to me."

Since the shootout, LAPD officers have been offered 45-caliber handguns instead of 9mm weapons, and five to 10 officers at each station are trained to use "urban police rifles," semiautomatic AR-15s, said Deputy Chief Ronald Bergman, commanding officer of the LAPD's San Fernando Valley Operations Bureau.

Bergman also said several officers at each station are trained to act as a rapid-response SWAT team in cases where loss of life is an immediate threat.

Many of the SWAT team members responding to the shootout traveled to the Valley from downtown Los Angeles, and some were still wearing shorts when they confronted the robbers, Bergman said.

"We used to surround and contain and wait for SWAT," he said. "Now there are officers who can act like a SWAT team in immediate loss of life situations."

The LAPD has also changed the way it sets up command posts, establishing clear guidelines for designating a commanding officer and boosting communication among police and fire agencies, Bergman said.

"By the time I got to the shootout an hour and half after it started, there were some things that were still not coordinated," Bergman said. "We had hundreds of officers out there, but we didn't know exactly who was there or who was in charge. We needed to know our resources to know whether we needed more or less."

For those who watched the shootout unfold on television, the event showed just how important the city's police force is to city residents and businesses. In one day, the shootout changed the public's perception of the LAPD -- then struggling with a tarnished image from the Rodney King beating.

"It brought into stark reality how important the LAPD officers are to the community as a whole," said City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. "Suddenly everyone felt our public safety officers were heroes."

One of the civilian heroes of the day was Dr. Jorge Montes, a dentist who treated two injured officers in his office directly across the street from the bank.

Officer James Zborovan and Detective William Krulac crashed through the front window of the dental office and screamed for help, Montes recalled.

Zborovan, who now works at the LAPD's Hollywood Division, was the most seriously injured with gunshots in his back, while Krulac, still at the North Hollywood Division, had an ankle wound.

Montes, 47, treated the officers' wounds with gauze and peroxide before the wounded officers were rescued by co-workers who rushed into the gunfire to save their fellow officers.

Like the officers in the gunfight, Montes said he struggled with anxiety and nervous twitches for months after the shootout.

"It made me realize how close we are to death and how little time we have on Earth," he said. "I just kept thinking about my daughter and how she might not ever see me again. I've always loved life, but now I appreciate everything so much more."

posted by Tracy Justus at 2/25/2002

Fighting fires, studio style
Studio department works to prevent fires on Warner Bros. lot.
[Source: Los Angeles Times]

By Ryan Carter
MEDIA DISTRICT WEST -- Squeezed into a 66-year-old Art Deco-style station house on a 110-acre main lot with 30 sound stages, the Warner Bros. Fire Department goes about business every day in the midst of a make-believe world.

Across from sets where "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Blazing Saddles" were filmed, a group of firefighters unseen in their official capacity outside the studio are well-known in this world, where electric golf carts shuttle around workers on shows like "ER" and "Gilmore Girls."

The station is a stop on studio tours, but it's no facade. "It's a unique job," said the department's assistant fire chief, Chuck Lisi, who retired as a captain after 32 years with the Burbank Fire Department. "It's a different world here. It's a city within a city."

What Lisi helps oversee is a department of nine full-time firefighters and a small team of part-timers. Three firefighters work each shift.

With their engine, they respond to fires on sets with the assistance of the Burbank Fire Department. They are on scene for intentionally set fires during filming, perform inspections and continually undergo training on the lot.

"We don't have the call load of the city of Burbank," Capt. Scot Feeney said, adding the Warner Bros. department responded to more than 300 calls for service last year.

But it's not chasing fires that's the bread and butter of the department. Prevention is the key, Feeney said. Many of the buildings are old and the wood on some of them is dry and vulnerable to burning. They are constantly being inspected, Feeney said.

And fires do happen, Lisi said, adding they can be big, such as the fire that scorched the set of "The Waltons" in the 1980s.

Lisi acknowledged the department is a stepping stone for firefighters who want to move on to municipal stations. One of those who wants to eventually move on is Engineer Launa Wilson, 23, one of two women on the force.

"It's a wonderful job," Wilson said.

posted by Tracy Justus at 2/24/2002