The Norco shootout was an armed confrontation between five heavily armed bank robbers and deputies of the Riverside County and San Bernardino County sheriffs' departments in Norco, California, on May 9, 1980. Two of the five perpetrators and a sheriff's deputy were killed, eight other law enforcement officers, a civilian, and two other perpetrators were wounded, and massive amounts of gunfire damaged at least 30 police cars, a police helicopter, and numerous nearby homes and businesses.

At approximately 3:40 p.m., five men armed with shotguns, a G3 rifle, HK93s, handguns, AR-15s, a katana and an improvised explosive device robbed the Norco branch of Security Pacific Bank. Deputies of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department responding to the bank robbery call confronted the perpetrators outside the bank and a shootout ensued, killing one perpetrator. The perpetrators then stole a vehicle in the bank parking lot and fled the scene, leading police on a 25-mile (40 km) car chase into neighboring San Bernardino County. Riverside County deputies were joined in the pursuit by officers of other area law enforcement agencies, including the California Highway Patrol and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. The perpetrators then ambushed the pursuing deputies and engaged them in another shootout in unincorporated San Bernardino County near Lytle Creek before escaping into a wooded area in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Two days later, three of the four surviving perpetrators were arrested in the area of the ambush; the fourth killed himself before he could be captured by police. The three who were arrested were convicted of 46 felonies and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.



Norco is a city in Riverside County, California, in the United States. Norco prides itself on being a "horse community," with horse trails, hitching posts, and corrals aplenty, and city ordinances requiring construction to have a "traditional, rustic... Western flavor." It was given the name Horsetown, USA as a result of this.As of the 2020 census, the city population was 26,316, down from 27,063 at the 2010 census.