NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Ex-City Worker Gets Life in Shooting

A former city parking enforcement officer who prosecutors compared with Rambo was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for wounding two people in a North Hollywood apartment in a shooting spree that he claims was motivated by love for his girlfriend.

Troyal Lee Sims, 25, was convicted in May of attempted murder and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon for storming a Hesby Street apartment Aug. 30.

“I think it was a miracle no one was killed that night,” said Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz, who handed down the life sentence for the attempted murder conviction and then added 12 years for the other crimes.

Sims testified during his trial in May that he was searching for his girlfriend, who had fallen in with members of a forgery ring, when he encountered one of her friends outside the apartment building where she used to live. Sims fired his gun but missed his target.

He then burst into the apartment and immediately shot Anthony Pierson, who along with another man scrambled for cover in the bathroom.

Sims entered and shot 10 rounds from his 9-millimeter handgun into the bathroom door without hitting either of the two men who were hiding there and then fired once at Kelly Walker-Banks, who was hiding next to a bed. She was struck once in the abdomen.

“It was almost like he was playing out a cops and robbers-type movie in his mind,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Linda Acaldo said.

Pierson and Walker-Banks have since recovered from their wounds.

“If not for the fact he’s such a lousy shot, we could have had four dead bodies,” Acaldo said.

Stoltz ruled during the trial that Sims could not present a defense based on his claim that he was trying to protect his girlfriend because he admitted that he kicked in the door of the residence.

Comparing Sims with the series of disgruntled men who have terrorized workplaces over the past several years, Stoltz said Sims’ motive in the shooting was to punish his girlfriend because she wouldn’t talk to him.

Sims will first be eligible for parole in about 13 years.