Top Five American Shootouts

North Hollywood Shootout on Feb.28, 1977

It will be befitting to call it a shootout, rather than a mock one! This took place just some miles from the Universal and Disney Studios. For the onlookers, this botched robbery was too much like a TV shooting.

The would-be robbers, Larry Phillips, Jr., and Emil Matasareanu (Left), were heavily armed, more for warfare than a bank heist, clad from head to toe, in body armor and brandishing a small armory’s worth of automatic weapons. Even though the Police had strength in numbers, they were completely outgunned and were even forced to augment their own meager weapons with higher caliber bullets, hastily purchased from a local gun store.

The News Paper men and TV choppers had captured the whole ordeal, which ended with Matasareanu committing suicide and Phillips being shot and then bleeding to death on the streets. It is estimated, that over 2,600 rounds of ammunition were fired by the deadly duo.

Bonnie and Clyde Episode on May 23, 1934

These two bank robbers were not strangers to gun play, but the shootout that ended their lives, was decidedly one-sided.

They had a string of high-profile robberies and exciting gun battles with the local law, and authorities had grown tired of being made to look foolish by these two, Bonnie and Clyde. Finally a posse of cops hid waiting for the duo, near their Bienville Parish, LA hideout. Once the couple slowed down by the side of the road, the lawmen opened fire without first warning. By the time when it was all over, the bodies of Bonnie and Clyde were said to have been shot as many as 50 times.

Norco Shootout on May 9, 1980

What was started as a California bank robbery, later turned into an explosive pursuit that left one officer dead, eight more wounded, and even a police helicopter being brought to the ground. On getting alerted that there was a robbery in progress, Deputy Bolanksy, arrived on the scene. But as soon as he arrived, he was under fire attack by the robber’s lookout. Shooting their way out of the bank, the gang of five criminal attempted to flee in their van, but Bolanksy shot and killed the diver, sending the van colliding into a tree. The gang commandeered a truck, and led the authorities on a high-speed chase, firing and tossing out homemade explosives. In total, over 33 police vehicles (including a helicopter) were damaged or destroyed.