Dora Lubensky can't forget the man soaked with blood who collapsed on her doorstep, pleading, "Let me in! Let me in!"
She called 911. The operator's orders frightened her more: "Don't let him in. Get away from the window, lay down and stay out of sight."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday March 02, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 61 words Type of Material: Correction
North Hollywood shootout: A map accompanying an article on the 1997 North Hollywood shootout in Thursday's Section A incorrectly placed the location of the holdup site on the west side of Laurel Canyon Boulevard. The Bank of America that was the target of the foiled bank robbery is on the east side of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, between Archwood and Kittridge streets.
A decade has passed since that morning of Feb. 28, 1997, but the memories are fresh for the North Hollywood residents and business owners and the police who lived through the bank robbery that left 11 officers and seven civilians wounded.
Lubensky was at the center of a 44-minute gun battle, with two heavily armed bank robbers clad in body armor firing more than 1,100 rounds against a badly outgunned police force.
The two robbers died at the scene; one shot himself in the head and the other bled to death after being hit by more than two dozen bullets.
Even as gentrification has touched this working-class area, the site of the shootout remains a powerful reminder of that day and its lingering effects.
Jose Haro, 73, still works as a locksmith in a kiosk across the street from the Bank of America branch. On the day of the shootout he threw one woman to the ground and held her there as a hail of bullets passed overhead. Even now he weeps when he recalls a police officer calling him a hero. God, he believes, put him there to help.
Some on duty that day still bear the scars.
Officer James Zboravan, 36, has a 7-inch gash on his back and another on his hip and buttocks from bullets that struck him that morning.
As he lay on the street bleeding, Zboravan thought of the veteran officer who spoke to his training class about living through being shot.
Since recovering, he has spoken several times a year to other officers about how to find the will to live through an attack. He still suffers pain from his wounds and must exercise every day, but Zboravan said he never considered quitting the force.
"This is the only thing I ever wanted to do," he said.
Zboravan was at the site of the shootout Wednesday for a vigil attended by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Police Chief William J. Bratton and other city officials. The block remains largely as it looked 10 years ago, although a planned overhaul of the retail corridor has been announced. Since the shootout North Hollywood has emerged as a popular arts district with galleries, theaters and loft housing that has attracted artists and young residents.
