The North Hollywood shootout was an armed confrontation between two heavily armed bank robbers, Larry Phillips, Jr. and Emil Matasareanu, and patrol and SWAT officers of the Los Angeles Police Departmnt in North Hollywood, California on February 28, 1997. It happened when responding patrol officers engaged Phillips, 26 and Matasareanu, 30 leaving a bank which the two men had just robbed. Ten officers down and seven civilians sustained gun shot injuries before both robbers were killed. Phillips and Matasareanu had robbed several armored vehicles prior to their attempt in North Hollywood and were notorious for their heavy armament, which included automatic rifles.

Specifically, AK-47 Rifles (7.62 X 19 mm) The same rifles used by Iraqi's, Russians, Chinese, and many other third world countries!

Local patrol officers at the time were typically armed with 9 mm or .38 Special pistols on their person, with some having a 12-gauge shotgun available in their cars. Phillips and Matasareanu carried fully automatic rifles, with ammunition capable of penetrating police body armor, and wore military grade body armor of their own. Since the police handguns could not penetrate the bank robbers' body armor, the patrol officers' efforts were ineffective. SWAT eventually arrived with weapons that could penetrate and several officers also appropriated AR-15 rifles from a nearby firearms dealer. The incident sparked debate on the appropriate firepower for patrol officers to have available in similar situations in the future.