Brinks Driver Injured in Attack on Truck

WOODLAND HILLS —  Shots rang out on a busy residential street Wednesday morning as gunmen opened fire on a Brinks armored truck, chased the truck briefly and then fled, dumping their van in an alley and setting it afire.

The attack could have been a robbery attempt or an act of revenge against one of the three guards in the Brinks truck, according to police officials. Police are investigating a possible link to the shooting of a robbery suspect by a Brinks guard during a robbery attempt last summer in Sylmar.

In Wednesday’s incident, the shots came from a parked van, shattering the Brinks truck windshield and narrowly missing the driver, said Jose Baca, a Brinks guard who was in the back of the truck at the time.

“The glass was flying everywhere, but he was able to keep driving,” Baca said.

The driver managed to steer the truck onto the sidewalk, across an empty lot and onto a side street. The gunmen followed for a short distance but then rushed away from the scene, Baca said. Police say the gunmen are still at large.

The driver, who was cut by glass, was the only one in the truck injured. He was taken to Columbia West Hills Medical Center where a hospital spokeswoman said he was in stable condition. Police would not release his name.

Shortly after Wednesday’s shooting, the van used by the gunmen was found several blocks away in an alley, gutted by fire.

“The van was torched by the suspects,” said Lt. James Razukas of the Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery-homicide division.

“Whether they were successful or not, as far as destroying physical evidence, we won’t know for a while.”

The shooting occurred about 9 a.m. when the Brinks truck was traveling north on Fallbrook Avenue near the Berdon Street intersection, Baca said.

Inside the Brinks truck, Baca and another guard riding as a passenger ducked when the windshield shattered. The shots came through the driver’s side of the truck, missing the driver by inches, according to the third guard in the truck.

“The bullets went up,” the guard said, gesturing just over his head.

Baca said he looked over at the driver and saw that though he was bleeding, he did not seem seriously hurt. “It was just glass, just glass,” Baca said.

Baca and the other guard yelled at the driver to quickly get away.

“We were yelling, ‘Drive! Drive! Go right! Go right!’ ” Baca said, his voice quivering with emotion.

The driver drove the Brinks truck onto the sidewalk at the northeast corner of the intersection and then onto a grassy lot.

Later that morning, Baca went back to look at the tire tracks, still visible in the tall grass. “We tried to get away,” Baca said. “The van followed us.”

The truck continued turning until the driver eventually guided it back onto Fallbrook Avenue, heading south. Baca said he was preparing to shoot at the van, but it sped away.

“Maybe they saw us take the gun out,” Baca said.

Razukas said the gunmen may have fled because they failed to bring the Brinks truck to an immediate halt.

“Whatever they were attempting to do, it was taking too long,” Razukas said. “They only had a limited window of time. It was just a matter of time before help arrived.”

The guards radioed for help and pulled over to the side of Fallbrook Avenue, near Ostronic Drive. George Baker, who lives nearby, was riding his bike on Fallbrook Avenue when he saw the guards help the driver out of the truck. “He was bleeding from the chest and some on his face,” Baker said.

Baca said Smith did not lose consciousness.

About the same time, according to the police, a UPS driver saw the burning van in an alley off Capistrano Avenue, about five blocks from the shooting. The UPS driver ran into a nearby former junior high school--now used for storage and other purposes by the Los Angeles Unified School District--and told employees there to call the Fire Department.

In a recent movie, “Heat,” armored car robbers torch their getaway vehicle. At the shooting scene Wednesday, one police officer wondered whether the suspects could have gotten the idea from the film. But most other details of this real-life attack were dissimilar.

Times staff writer David Wharton contributed to this story