Vintage LAPD SLA Compton Shootout News Film

[Peter_SD911]

This restored video is from KABC Eyewitness News in May of 1974.

It's the shootout at the SLA house in Compton where Patty Hearst was believed to be with the members of the SLA were hold up.

There is plenty of LAPD radios and radio traffic, and what is interesting is how there was NO silly yellow "police line" tape to restrain the media.
Funny how the very "new" SWAT team had VHF-Hi radios with those telescoping antennas...while the KABC reporter has a Hi band hand held with a space age "Rubber Duckie".

It's an good watch...even frame by frame.

 

[es93546]

Thanks for the look back, although I take no reward in remembering this event and similar events that dominated the news at the time. I had just finished my junior year in college and about to begin my second season with the U.S. Forest Service. I felt some isolation from events like this as I was working out of the small town of Williams, Arizona at the time. It took nearly 25-30 years later to arm the police sufficiently to not frequently be outgunned at incidents.

The hair on the anchors brought back a few memories as well!

 

[ChicagoRadio736]

Good watch 2years before I was born. Kinda reminds me of the infamous North Hollywood bank robbery shootout.

 

[prcguy]

My good friend and landlord years ago was an LAPD motorcycle officer back then and one of the first on scene at the SLA shootout. He had a shotgun and was given a case of shotgun ammo and at one point was shooting continuously into the house when he noticed a guy in a suit standing behind him. The guy was FBI and shouted "you LAPD guys are great!" or something similar which prompted my friend to speed up his shooting. It must have been an insane place to be.

 

[AM909]

Wow things have changed. Hard to imagine today's "presenters" interfering in an active scene like that. The language seems very different, too. And the sideburns.

 

[EAFrizzle]

Wide ties and lapels, sideburns... I betcha at least one of those guys was wearing those side-zipper, disco-looking elevator boots.

I've heard that quantity has a quality all its own... Quality firepower on display.

 

[EAFrizzle]

Wow things have changed. Hard to imagine today's "presenters" interfering in an active scene like that. The language seems very different, too. And the sideburns.

Back then, all the local newsies were trying to Dan Rather their way into a network job. People were quite a bit less risk-averse in those days.

Now they just need to figure out to stay indoors during hurricanes.

 

[Engine104]

I remember listening to the old LAPD "114" Metro Div. frequency (Simplex VHF) that day. I could only hear the base station, but apparently an officer onscene requested "fragmentation grenades" during the height of the shootout. Their request was denied. It was crazy. I had a tunable VHF receiver from Lafayette at the time.

 

[nokones]

This restored video is from KABC Eyewitness News in May of 1974.

It's the shootout at the SLA house in Compton where Patty Hearst was believed to be with the members of the SLA were hold up.

There is plenty of LAPD radios and radio traffic, and what is interesting is how there was NO silly yellow "police line" tape to restrain the media.
Funny how the very "new" SWAT team had VHF-Hi radios with those telescoping antennas...while the KABC

The shootout was not in Compton. The shootout was at a house on 54th St. and Compton Ave. I was on Compton Ave. at 52nd St. when that event went down.