The Symbionese Liberation Army Shootout

LAPD's Most Intense Gun Battle

By: International Bestselling Author Mike Rothmiller

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The Great Symbionese Liberation Army shootout Los Angeles.

I was a young patrol cop and was present at one of the most infamous shootouts in LAPD history.

Members of the ragtag self-proclaimed "Symbionese Liberation Army" were surrounded by hundreds of LA cops, LA Sheriffs, and the California Highway Patrol.

Months earlier, this group of criminals kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst. They held her for ransom, then surprisingly, she announced she had become a member of the gang.

On the 17th of May 1974, members of the group were located in a small house at 1466 East 54th Street in Los Angeles. I heard the announcement over the police radio and raced to the location roughly 10 miles away.

Over a bullhorn, an LAPD captain told the occupants to come out with their hands up. When they failed to comply, a tear gas canister was fired into the house, and all hell broke loose. The SLA members sprayed the police and surrounding cars with intense automatic gunfire. Dozens of LAPD officers fired back. For the cops there, the deadly firefight seemed to last hours, but it was much shorter. More teargas was fired into the house, and the house began to burn.

Nancy Ling Perry and Camilla Hall ran from the burning house and were quickly shot down by police snipers. The others remained in the house and died.

The SLA dead were Nancy Ling Perry ("Fahizah"), Angela Atwood ("General Gelina"), Camilla Hall ("Gabi"), Willie Wolfe ("Kahjoh"), Donald DeFreeze ("Cinque"), and Patricia Soltysik ("Mizmoon," "Zoya"). All but one of the bodies were found huddled in the crawl space under the house. The house was destroyed by fire.

Nine thousand rounds were fired when the shooting subsided, 4,000 at police by the SLA and 5,000 by police.
To the disappointment of the LAPD, Patty Hearst and other SLA members did not die in the inferno. She and the surviving members were on the run. The FBI chased them across the country for months before she was captured in San Francisco on September 18, 1975 and charged with bank robbery and other crimes.

Her trial was a show made for TV with all the associated drama. Her attorneys claimed she was brainwashed into joining the SLA. The jury didn't buy it, and she was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. She served just two years before President Carter commuted her sentence, and President Clinton later gave her a full pardon.
The last two members of the SLA were arrested in 1999 and 2002.

What you are about to read is the harrowing story of one LAPD cop during the shootout.