11 Citizens Honored for Their Courage

Eleven people received Courageous Citizens Awards from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office in a downtown ceremony Friday, including four men honored for their bravery in the North Hollywood bank shootout two months ago.

The recipients included Dr. Jorge Montes, Jose Haro, Hector Quevedo and David Campbell, who were recognized for their actions during the widely televised Feb. 28 gun battle, which started when two heavily armed suspects in body armor tried to rob a Bank of America branch on Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

The gunmen were shot and killed after spraying thousands of automatic rounds around the neighborhood and engaging police in a lengthy standoff. Several bystanders and police were injured, but none died.

About 300 people attended Friday’s ceremony, including Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and several of his top aides, according to Mark McKinniss, an administrative assistant in the district attorney’s office.

Montes, a 42-year-old North Hollywood dentist, used medical supplies in his office across from the bank to treat wounded officers. Haro, 63, and also of North Hollywood, runs a locksmith hut across from the bank that became one of the shootout’s symbols.

As bullets shredded Haro’s business, he managed to run into nearby shops and pull several people to safety.

Quevedo, a 24-year-old armored car guard who lives in Van Nuys, was driving the car with fellow guard Campbell, 33, when the shootout began. Police approached them and requested the vehicle for protection.

“They could have just said, ‘Sure,’ and let the cops take it away,” McKinniss said. “But instead they went into the war zone.”

McKinniss said Campbell even removed his shirt to use as a tourniquet for a wounded bystander.

Seven other awards were given out, including one for a U.S. Postal Service supervisor who grabbed a gun away from an employee who had just shot and killed another postal worker in the City of Industry.