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Three of the police remain in hospital after Tuesday’s shooting, with an officer who will need further surgery.
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Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press, Denise Ryan Police officers reunite after two gunmen entering a bank were killed in a shootout with police in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, on June 28, 2022. Photo by KEVIN LIGHT / REUTERS
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SAANICH – Multiple explosive devices were found in a vehicle connected to two suspected robbers who were shot in the balance in front of a bank in Saanich.
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Saanich Cap Const. Dean Duthie said Wednesday that an RCMP explosives disposal unit was able to transfer the vehicle’s devices to a local landfill and destroy them.
Police had evacuated the area shortly after Tuesday’s shooting when the explosives unit was called.
Six officers were shot dead and two suspects were killed in a shootout with police on Tuesday.
Duthie said three of the officers remain in the hospital, including one who is in intensive care, while another will require more surgeries.
He had spoken to one of the hospital officers and said the police department will be there to support him.
“We’re here for his family … just to let him know that the police community is behind him 100 percent.”
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The chief said police are still investigating the possibility of a third suspect, although they do not believe there is any risk to the public.
He said police were acting with vague information.
“Our goal was to maintain public safety,” he said of police who ordered residents near the bank to stay inside on Tuesday.
Police said in a statement that they are unable to confirm the identity, background or motive of the suspects.
Work is underway to try to confirm the names of the suspects.
Duthie has watched much of the video of the incident and said it is a miracle that no one else has been killed.
“It’s amazing that no other citizen or member of the public is injured,” he said, accrediting the swift actions of the officers who responded.
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“Both patrol officers and Greater Victoria emergency response officers (put themselves in danger) to bring it to a successful and safe conclusion as soon as possible.”
Overview of the site where two armed suspects and six police officers were shot dead during an incident at a bank in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, on June 28, 2022 in this image obtained from social media. Joan B Flood / via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO SALE. NO FILES. Photo of Joan B Flood / via REUTERS
A woman trapped inside the bank during the robbery told CFAX radio she was in a meeting with the manager when she heard a loud explosion and then silence.
Shelli Fryer, 59, of Langford, said he was looking out the door and a few yards from it was “a man with full assault gear, with an assault rifle.”
Fryer said the masked man was dressed in black, wore an armored vest over his jacket and held a black rifle that was shorter and heavier than she was used to seeing in the media.
“Their energy was completely calm,” he said.
He heard a gunman silently say to the manager, “Vault,” and the manager handed him the keys and they both left the office, he said.
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Fryer said the other suspect was walking on the floor, just walking back and forth in front of the office, “like he was going for a walk in the park, walking like he was waiting for something.”
The thieves put the 22 people who were on the bench against a wall in a back hallway and waited for what seemed like an eternity, he said. “We didn’t hear anything going on outside. We didn’t hear the sirens.”
He heard out loud, “Police!” and then a hail of gunfire, and everyone ran to hide.
Fryer said all police officers involved in the “absolutely insane incident” were handled professionally and then treated those on the bench with kindness and concern.
Police and paramedics are responding Tuesday to a bank robbery at the Bank of Montreal on Shelbourne and Pear streets, where several people were injured in a shooting.
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Violent, armed robberies at banks are a rarity in Canada, said Robert Gordon, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University.
Gordon said the suspects could have targeted the bank based on information about an unusual or large amount of cash at the facility, possibly a Brink delivery or a cash payroll.
“Maybe they had some internal knowledge of a shipment of some kind sitting in that bank. There had to be something in that bank that they thought was worth taking,” Gordon said.
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Witness to Saanich’s robbery: “There’s a boy at the door and he’s carrying an assault rifle”
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Two suspects killed, six officers injured after a shooting at Saanich’s bank
Although in 2013, sociologist Frederick Desroches predicted the end of bank robberies, thanks to the growing transition to a cashless society, improved surveillance and better surveillance, thefts still occur in cases where what criminals have prior knowledge of a large “target” in the bank.
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“The flow of money movement information is a challenge for any security organization,” Gordon said. “We still have these overnight robberies where there is some goal in the bank that is worth having, where they will spend a lot of time planning it, going into the vault or the vault. These are unusual cases, but they happen. “.
These operations require careful planning and would normally be executed by “skilled or knowledgeable” groups. Gordon said the culprits in Saanich’s robbery seemed “fans.”
“The days of masked bandits rushing to the bank and waving guns are long gone,” Gordon said. “Banks no longer have large amounts of cash. Security at banks is much harder than it used to be: there are panic buttons, CCTV and other sophisticated methods of trapping and trapping people inside banks.”
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On the other hand, “low-priced” thefts are not uncommon, where bank robbers point at ATMs for the small amounts of cash they keep in their drawers. Banks usually advise ATMs not to resist and to hand over cash when asked.
Police and paramedics are responding Tuesday to a bank robbery at the Bank of Montreal on Shelbourne and Pear streets, where several people were injured in a shooting.
dryan@postmedia.com
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