Norco shootout

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The armed confrontation between five heavily armed bank robbers and deputy sheriffs from Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in California is called the Norco shootout . It occurred on May 9, 1980 around 3 p.m. local time after the perpetrators raided the Security Pacific Bank branch in Norco , California. The robbers were carrying shotguns , assault rifles , pistols and improvised explosive devicesarmed. Two of the perpetrators and a deputy sheriff were killed and eight other deputies were wounded.

A film about the shooting was released in 2006 under the title Rapid Fire by Kari Skogland .

Course of the dispute

On May 9, 1980, around 3:00 p.m. local time, four robbers stormed into the bank branch and forced the tellers to surrender US $ 20,000 in cash. The fifth robber was outside the bank on observation posts. An employee of another bank across the street had seen the robbers entering the bank and alerted the police.

A Riverside County deputy sheriff named Glyn Bolasky was the first officer on the scene. As he drove up, the robber who had stayed outside the bank opened fire on the patrol car, shot the windshield and forced the sheriff into reverse, ramming another vehicle in the street. He took cover in his vehicle and returned fire. When the other robbers heard the shots in the street, they ran out of the bank and got into their escape vehicle, a pickup truck. They tried to escape from the scene while they continued to shoot the sheriff. A bullet from the sheriff's rifle hit the driver of the getaway vehicle in the back of the head, killing him, causing the vehicle to crash into a tree. The four remaining robbers got out and fired over 200 rounds at the officer, 47 of which hit his vehicle. The police officer was hit five times.

At that time, the Deputies Charles Hille and Andy Delgado arrived at the scene. Delgado shot at the robbers, Hille managed to get Bolasky into his police car and drive to a nearby hospital. The robbers continued to fire on other police officers arriving at the scene and eventually tried to flee again. To do this, they hijacked a truck in the bank's parking lot. In the chase that followed, they shot the police officers who followed and threw their homemade bombs from the back of the truck. In total, they damaged 33 police vehicles, including a police helicopter that they forced to land.

The perpetrators eventually got a big head start and went into ambush. James Evans, the first police officer to come under fire in the ambush, was hit in the head and died. The police were only armed with .38 caliber revolvers and shotguns and were therefore severely disadvantaged in terms of firepower . Soon, however, Deputy DJ McCarty was added from San Bernardino County, which an assault rifle -type AR-15 had with him. Shortly after he started taking them under fire with his rifle, the robbers stopped shooting and fled on foot. They ran into the wooded area of Lytle Creek in San Bernardino.

Two days later, three of the shooters were arrested. The fourth, Manuel Delgado, was shot dead in another shootout with a SWAT team. A total of eight police officers were injured and one killed during the exchange of fire. The three arrested perpetrators, George Wayne Smith and brothers Christopher and Russell Harven, were found guilty of 46 crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment with no prospect of parole.

Bolasky recovered from his injuries and received several awards for his efforts. He later became an officer in the US Air Force .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Danielle Burrows: Surviving terrorism: shot five times by bank robbers, an Air Force officer tells his story, offering candid advice how to avoid being a victim of terrorists . Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  2. ^ A first person account of the day that changed law-enforcement in Riverside County forever . Retrieved May 7, 2008.