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"...The Zelig-like Cole also garnered national attention in 1997 for gaining access to Emil Matasareanu as he lay dying on a North Hollywood street after his outrageous, nationally televised post-bank-robbery shootout with police, which left 11 officers and six civilians injured. In Cole's version of events, Matasareanu was a victim of heartless law-enforcement officials who didn't respond quickly enough to his medical needs. Her account, which she conveyed to Times reporter Bill Boyarsky, became a part of the wrongful-death lawsuit leveled by Matasareanu's family..."
For an alternative point of view, see http://www.reporter-news.com/1998/opinion/bang0424.html:

Abilene Reporter-News
Friday, April 24, 1998
Bang, bang, you're sued
The American legal theory that "everyone is a victim, no one is responsible" got another boost this week.
The victim, or so his lawyer says, is Emil Matasareanu, who was indeed engaged in a hazardous line of work. He robbed banks and armored cars.
Last February, in the course of pursuing his occupation, Matasareanu and his partner, Larry Phillips, donned full body armor and armed themselves with assault rifles loaded with armor-piercing ammo and illegally modified to be fully automatic. They then set off to rob a bank.
When police objected, they shot at them. And shot and shot and shot, for 40 minutes, wounding 11 officers and six civilians. One squad car was hit 47 times. The altercation ended when Phillips committed suicide and Matasareanu was wounded, fatally it turned out.
A lawyer, suing on behalf of Matasareanu's children barely a month after the robbery, charged that police violated the robber's civil rights by denying him immediate medical attention. He might have lived, the suit says, if the police had rushed him to the hospital. This week, the suit was broadened to include the city's paramedics as co-conspirators in murder.
A reasonable person might say that one forfeits a claim on prompt and courteous service from the police by trying to kill them for the better part of an hour, but this is the American legal system: As the lawyer put it, the would-be killer had "serious medical needs."
This case deserves an award, all right, but not for damages. The judge should give it an award for effrontery before throwing it out of court.

From http://www.freqofnature.com/2002_02_24_newsarchives.html:

Monday, February 25, 2002
LAPD bears shootout scars
[Source: Daily News]

Photo of an LAPD police car from the N. Hollywood incident

By Holly Edwards
NORTH HOLLYWOOD -- Bullet marks still mar the cinder block walls and wrought-iron fences surrounding the Bank of America in North Hollywood, the site of one of the fiercest gun battles in the city's history.

Five years ago this Thursday, two masked men armed with automatic weapons and body armor robbed the bank at 6600 Laurel Canyon Blvd., then marched confidently down the street in terrifying scenes caught unforgettably by helicopter-borne television cameras.

The robbers sprayed thousands of bullets at officers, bystanders and the surrounding neighborhood for 45 minutes before they were killed. Ten police officers and six bystanders were wounded.

Like the pockmarks left by the shower of bullets, the indelible marks of the gunbattle are still riddled throughout the city -- in the way the Los Angeles Police Department responds to armed suspects, the public's perception of the LAPD, and the personal lives of the officers who risked their lives in the standoff.

Many of the responding police officers say they have coped with the lingering effects of traumatic stress -- depression, nightmares and flashbacks -- similar to those experienced by battle-scarred soldiers.

"I'm not the same person and I still think about the shootout every single day," said LAPD Officer John Caprarelli, 44, one of the officers involved in the gunfight.

"For months and months, I had nightmares where I was back in some part of the shootout. I was haunted by questions of why and what if, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Stress will do very strange things to you."

Caprarelli said he still relives moments of the shootout, like running for his life in a hail of bullets, hearing his wounded comrades screaming for help over the radio, and staring into the eyes of Larry Phillips before the 26-year-old robber was shot and killed by police.

The other robber, Emil Matasareanu, 30, was killed by members of the LAPD Special Weapons and Tactics team after he commandeered a pickup from a man who ran for his life after being injured by flying shrapnel.

Since the shootout, three of the officers involved have committed suicide, and many have sought help for depression and substance abuse problems, said Sgt. Keith Moreland, supervisor of the LAPD employee assistance unit.

While Moreland said he does not believe the officers' suicides were the direct result of the shootout, he said it is common for officers involved in life-and-death situations to experience despair and anxiety that can worsen if left untreated... more

Their "despair and anxiety" might also have been aggravated by Ms. Cole, and the pro-criminal attitude of the L.A. Times.