In Wake of Shootout, Community Unites

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — The site of one of the fiercest gun battles in city history was awash in fun and games Saturday as neighbors gathered at a huge block party to meet each other and affirm their sense of community.

Hundreds came to the neighborhood behind the Bank of America branch that was held up Feb. 28 by two heavily armed gunmen who exchanged fire in a nationally televised shootout with police.

A dunking booth, a raffle, a bouncing castle for kids and a battleship replica for military buffs were among the reassuring symbols of normality on streets that not so long ago were marred by bullets and blood.

Several of the Los Angeles Police Department officers involved in the confrontation returned to the scene Saturday to bask in public praise--and reciprocate.

“Police are an extension of the public,” said LAPD Sgt. Dean Haynes, who was wounded in the shoulder and leg during the siege. “We can’t do our jobs without them.”

And if the shootout itself was an extraordinary event, so were Saturday’s festivities in a working-class area where residents have not had an organized Neighborhood Watch in more than a decade.

“I’ve been in this neighborhood 16 years, and I’ve never seen anything on this scale,” said Eric Harlow, 22. “This is an important development that will help put to rest the tension and the fear around here.”

Except for the small bullet holes at several homes, there were few remnants of the shootout that killed robbers Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu. Five civilians and 11 police officers also were wounded, and dozens of blocks around Archwood Street were shut down.

“Why was it held here?” said Gloria Martino, one of the primary organizers of the event. “Because this is the middle of the neighborhood and everyone can feel like they are a part of this.”

Throughout the day, the dark-haired, energetic Brooklyn native rushed between booths and a stage, announcing raffle winners and introducing a parade of officials who came to urge neighborhood participation in community policing.

“We are always trying to come up with newfangled ways to fight crime in communities,” remarked Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the northeast Valley, including parts of North Hollywood. “But Neighborhood Watch is so basic to countering crime and building a sense of community.”

Support for the LAPD was so strong in Saturday’s crowd that when Alarcon criticized civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman for bringing a suit against the police--for allegedly failing to seek medical attention for the mortally wounded Matasareanu--the lawyer’s name drew a chorus of boos.

“These are the kind of convoluted values we are fighting against,” said Alarcon, whose office helped organize the event. Any money gleaned from the incident through litigation, he said, would come from “ill-gotten gains.”

Most people agreed the best thing about the party Saturday was the sense of community that had grown out of the traumatic event.

Even before the bank robbery, residents said, they were beginning to see signs of positive change in the neighborhood, where the sound of gunshots and police helicopters was commonplace.

But after February, the process seemed to accelerate.

“People are looking out of their windows more. They’re paying attention to who is around, and they are looking out for each other,” said resident Joni Lyman.

“It looks like things are looking up,” another resident said to his neighbor.

The success of the event could be measured in the smiling faces of children as they sat on police motorcycles, played in two camouflaged Humvees and munched on hamburgers.

“What do you think?” Martino asked. She paused, then answered her own question.

“I’m really glad I did it, and I’m going to do it again next year. This is great.”

“These are all good people and I don’t know why we have been so isolated,” Harlow said. “But that’s changing.”