Rep. Glenn Anderson Robbed; Two Held

Los Angeles police are holding two men who allegedly robbed and fired a shot at U.S. Rep. Glenn M. Anderson (D-Harbor City) as he left a bank in Wilmington on Monday, authorities said.

One suspect, armed with a handgun, confronted Anderson, 72, outside the First Interstate Bank at 1234 N. Avalon Blvd. just before noon, said Harbor Division Capt. Robert McVea.

The man demanded money and Anderson, who served as California Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown’s lieutenant governor in the 1960s, handed him a briefcase containing “a small amount of money,” McVea said. The suspect then fired a shot from a few feet away. The bullet passed through a leg of Anderson’s trousers without injuring the congressman.

The gunman jumped into a nearby van driven by an accomplice. Police, who had been flagged down by a bystander, chased the van through the Wilmington area and north on the Harbor Freeway.

The van left the freeway at Imperial Highway and crashed into a car at 106th Street and Normandie Avenue, McVea said. One suspect, Darrel Borders, 25, was captured there.

A second suspect, James Lawson, 22, fled, firing one shot that missed a pursuing officer. Officers in a police helicopter saw Lawson crawl beneath a home on 107th Street, but the suspect refused to come out.

A SWAT team was called and flushed Lawson by firing tear gas beneath the house, McVea said. He added that police recovered two handguns and Anderson’s briefcase.

The two suspects are being held on charges of armed robbery and attempted robbery.