Shootout Probe Taking LAPD Out of State

Los Angeles detectives plan to travel out-of-state in search of more clues about the two dead gunmen involved in last week’s bungled North Hollywood bank robbery, according to sources close to the case, who also disclosed Wednesday that the pair had a gasoline bomb stashed in their car during the shootout.

Detectives were set to go to Colorado and possibly Arizona to gather more information on Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., 26, and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30, sources said. Phillips once lived in Colorado and had a burglary conviction there.

A spokesman for Denver police said earlier this week that Phillips had been arrested there on a residential burglary charge in 1992. Phillips spent at least part of his childhood in Denver, moving to the Los Angeles area with his mother at age 10.

Denver Police Det. Virginia Lopez said the FBI has requested one of her department’s photographs of Phillips to assist in the investigation. The Denver photo shows a cleanshaven, bespectacled Phillips, she said, while a booking mug taken by Glendale police in 1993 shows a bearded Phillips without glasses.

Meanwhile, in other developments Wednesday:

* The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced that it was changing its policies regarding the deployment of semiautomatic rifles. “Effective immediately, the Sheriff’s Department will begin deploying the AR-15 rifles in all field supervisors’ cars after completion of the appropriate training,” said sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ron Spear. “Previously, the rifles were kept at individual station armories and in the field with select deputies, such as those assigned to remote areas.”

* Police said they recovered an assortment of weapons paraphernalia and Soldier of Fortune magazines during searches this week of properties linked to Phillips and Matasareanu. A source, however, said the searches did not yet appear to have produced “anything of consequence.”

* State officials, who closed down the Altadena boarding home that Matasareanu ran with his mother, said they had once accused Matasareanu of using excessive force against a resident. According to a complaint they lodged, the 6-foot Matasareanu, who weighed more than 200 pounds, threw a 140-pound resident of the home against a wall, banging his head and injuring him.

* Police officials expressed concern that television clips showing bullets bouncing off the robbers’ armor might persuade gang members and other criminals to protect themselves in the same way. “If the wrong element sees how effective this is . . . then what are we in for?” said Cmdr. Royal Scott LaChasse.

* LAPD officers found a Molotov cocktail in the back seat of the gunmen’s car when they searched it Friday. “Anybody within 100 feet of that car would have been hurt,” said a source close to the investigation. “It certainly would have destroyed the car.”

The disclosure was offered as police explained why they did not immediately offer medical assistance to the robber who was shot behind that car.

While residents who witnessed the shooting questioned why the gunman was not treated, the source said the LAPD’s bomb squad advised that no police officer should search the robbers’ bags, their bodies or their car until it could be determined that they did not have explosive devices or grenades.

The source said LAPD intelligence reports indicate that members of militia movements have been known to have explosive devices on their bodies or in their cars that could be set off by timers. No explosives were found on the bodies of Matasareanu or Phillips or in the black bag that the robbers used to take money from the bank.

Other police officials have said they did not immediately allow an ambulance to the scene because they were concerned about other possible suspects in the area.

When paramedics arrived on the scene about 85 minutes after the shooting, Matasareanu was dead.

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Tim McBride said the issue of medical attention for Matasareanu will be part of an internal review that will evaluate the actions of every officer involved in the Friday shootout, which left 11 officers and six citizens injured.

McBride, however, said he believes that the officers acted appropriately.

“In situations like that, the investigation dictates what we are going to do,” he said. “There was a lot going on at the time.”

The department’s internal investigation, considered a routine administrative matter, is also expected to evaluate the gun battle before Matasareanu’s death. According to a source, the three SWAT officers who raced down Archwood Street and engaged Matasareanu in a firefight were apparently unaware of his presence there.

The officers, using their SWAT radio frequency for information, believed that they were on a rescue mission--not about to confront the robber--which explains why the police car drove perilously close to the suspect, the source said.

Also Wednesday, detectives said they still don’t know how the pair had spent any stolen money, whether they belonged to a larger criminal organization or if they received special weapons training.

One source close to the investigation said authorities have traced four of six guns seized after last week’s incident. A trace of two other weapons had so far been inconclusive.

“I don’t know if they have reached a dead-end” tracing those weapons, the source said.

Meanwhile, a firearms expert said Wednesday that the actions of the gunmen during the shootout suggested anything but a paramilitary background. “From the looks of the videotape, these people were not highly trained, highly skilled individuals. They were people who [only] had equipment,” said Ignatius Piazza, president of the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in Bakersfield.

Times staff writers Greg Krikorian, James Rainey, Louis Sahagun and Henry Weinstein and correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.

* STRESS FACTOR: Psychologists are monitoring officers involved in ordeal. B1