May 9, 1980: Robbery, Chase, and Shootout Leave 3 Dead and 33 Cars Destroyed

A Brief History

On May 9, 1980, the Security Pacific Bank of Norco, California was held up by 5 robbers, leading to chases and shootouts resulting in 2 robbers and a deputy sheriff being killed and a whopping 33 vehicles being destroyed.

Digging Deeper

The 5 bank robbers armed with shotguns, assault rifles (AK-47, HK91, HK93), and handguns, as well as home made bombs robbed the bank then stole a car and fought a running gun battle with two sheriff’s departments (Riverside and San Bernardino) Two suspects were killed, one deputy was killed, nine other cops wounded, and 30 police cars shot. Even a police helicopter was shot! Three of the suspects lived to be arrested two days later, only for all three to serve life without parole.

A robber had spotted the first police car to arrive near the scene and alerted his chums via radio, resulting in a quick getaway attempt and a fusillade of bullets fired through the responding deputy’s windshield. That deputy returned fire, killing the driver of the getaway van. As the van stopped, the surviving robbers poured over 200 bullets toward Deputy Bolasky, hitting he hapless law officer 5 times, but failing to kill this tough lawman.

As the chase continued with the robbers commandeering a truck, homemade bombs were tossed by the robbers at pursuing deputies, and the shooting continued, resulting in all that damage to vehicles and property. The damaged helicopter that was hit by gunfire was forced to land, luckily without killing anyone.

The devious robbers got far enough ahead of the pursuing deputies to set up an ambush, and managed to kill the first deputy that arrived with a shot to the head. The deputies were heavily outgunned (with pistols and shotguns against assault rifles), but fought tenaciously. One of the responding deputies was armed with an AR-15 (a model of the military M-16) which provided enough firepower to cause the robbers to flee on foot.

Escaping temporarily, 3 of the robbers were captured the next day, while one was killed in a shootout with the LA County Sheriff SWAT team. As a result of this massive shootout, San Bernardino Sheriff’s deputies were later equipped with ‘assault rifles’ of their own (Ruger Mini-14 and AR-15 types) in order to be better prepared for the next time bad guys come heavily armed. ( Note: Despite commonly referred to as “assault rifles” weapons like the Mini-14 that fire semi-automatically and not on full automatic such as a machine gun are technically not“assault weapons.” The AR-15 may come in a semi-automatic only or a full automatic fire capable version.)

News footage of the incident is often shown to rookie police classes to emphasize just how bad things can get, in order to mentally prepare trainees for the “worst case scenario.” A film was made for television about the event, titled Rapid Fire in 2006.

With all the Headlines lately decrying police use of force, incidents such as this remind us that at any given time things could go downhill quite rapidly for police, and they never really know what to expect, although they have to be ready for anything, including a shootout with 5 heavily armed thugs. Our thanks and best wishes go out to the men and women in blue. (See our article “Most Spectacular Hollywood Shootout of Them All“ from February 28, 1997)

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