User: Larry Phillips
Make and Model: Beretta 92 FS 'Inox'
Serial#: Unknown
Year of production: Unknown
Manufacturer's production run:
Importer: N/A
Year of import: N/A
NHWD Artefact #:
Status: Semi-automatic fire only.

Not too many details are known about this particular handgun other than it was the fourth firearm Larry Phillips would use in the 44-minute shootout. It would be this Beretta 92FS from which Phillips' would fire his last shot and commit suicide.

One interesting fact is Larry Phillips had loaded his Beretta with Hirtenberger sub-machine gun ammunition; a highly dangerous thing to do with handguns as this type of ammunition is loaded to significantly higher pressures than standard 9mm ball ammunition and defensive ammo for that matter. This meant Phillips was running the risk of having the gun blowing up in his hand for the sake of gaining additional fps (feet per second) out of his gun. The psychological reasoning for this is an interesting one as it poses the question of what was Larry Phillips' state of mind during the planning stages of the robbery?

Did Phillips know what was coming? Was this one way of going 'all out' in what was to become his last stand? We will never know, but the conversation he had with his father, Larry Sr., in November of 1996 indicated that Jr. knew that there would be deadly consequences for what he and Emil were planning to do in the months ahead. One thing that seemed apparent is Phillips wanted any advantage he could get in a potential firefight against the LAPD.

There is, however, the possibility that Larry Phillips was unaware of the ammo he was loading into his Beretta, but this does not seem probable given the type of military-grade firepower they carried and was subsequently found in their homes, along with gun literature and various gun parts, accessories, and tooling. The bottom line is that they definitely knew what they were doing.