BINGO GUNMEN FOILED IN RESEDA.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Staff Writer

Protecting 250 people playing bingo at a Reseda hall, two guards fended off armed robbers by firing shots, police said Tuesday.

One robber carrying a shotgun and another armed with a semiautomatic weapon approached the guards about 9:30 p.m. Monday at the back of the Sherman Square Entertainment Center in the 18400 block of Sherman Way, police said.

``The security guards stopped them outside,'' said Detective Bob Howe of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division.

The security guards each fired a single round at the robbers, while inside the hall people played bingo to raise money for disabled youths at the Poseidon School in West Los Angeles, police said.

No shots were ever fired at the guards, and the gunmen fled, Howe said. It was not clear whether the gunmen were wounded.

Players said the guards are heroes.

``It's kind of scary,'' said Candy Krugel, 48, of West Hills, a regular bingo player at the Reseda hall. ``But you feel confident that the guards were there to keep you safe.''

The suspects each are described as African-American men, 6 feet tall, about 175 pounds, in their early 20s and with shaved heads.

Krugel said no one knew what had happened until bingo coordinators told people to stay inside during their usual smoking break. ``All of a sudden, you hear the helicopters and you see the guards with their guns drawn,'' she said.

Shirley Flucus, who supervises the city charitable services section for the Police Commission, said the last bingo hall robberies occurred in 1993.

``They think that they're easy targets because they're dealing with cash,'' Flucus said. But in truth, that's not the case, she said, because most of them are secured with guards.

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Map: Attempted robbery at bingo hall

Reseda