Three police officers are in hospital after Tuesday’s shooting, while one officer will require further surgery.
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SAANICH – Several explosive devices were found in a vehicle belonging to two robbery suspects outside a bank in Sanich.
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Sanich Chief Const. Dean Duthie said Wednesday that the RCMP Explosives Disposal Unit was able to move the equipment from the vehicle to a local landfill and destroy them.
Police had evacuated the area on Tuesday immediately after the firing as the explosives unit was called in.
Six officers were killed and two suspects were killed in an encounter with the police on Tuesday.
Duthi said three officers are in the hospital, including one in intensive care, while another officer will require further surgery.
He had spoken to an officer in the hospital and said that the police department would be there to help him.
“We are here for his family … just to let him know that the police community is 100 percent behind him.”
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The chief said police are still investigating the possibility of a third suspect, although he believes it poses no danger to the public.
He said that the police is acting on vague information.
“Our goal was to keep the public safe,” he said of police ordering residents near the bank to stay inside on Tuesday.
Police said in a statement that they were not able to confirm the identity, background or motive of the suspects.
Efforts are on to confirm the names of the suspects.
Duthi has seen most of the video footage of the incident and says it is a miracle that no one else was killed.
“It is astonishing that no other civilian or member of the public was injured,” he said, crediting the prompt action of the responding officers.
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“The Patrol Officer and the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Officer (both) put themselves in harm’s way to bring this to a successful and safe conclusion as quickly as possible.”
A woman trapped inside the bank during the robbery told CFAX Radio that she was meeting with the manager when she heard a loud bang and then fell silent.
Shelley Fryer, 59, of Langford, said she looked through the door and a few feet away was “a man in full assault gear, holding an assault rifle.”
Fryer said the masked man was dressed completely black, had an armored vest over his jacket, and had a black rifle that was shorter and stockier than what he was used to seeing in the media.
“The energy in them was completely calming,” she said.
He heard a gunman say quietly to the manager, “Vault,” and the manager gave him the key and they both left the office, she said.
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Fryer said the second suspect was running across the floor, just walking back and forth across the office, “as if he was going for a walk in the park, waiting for something.”
The robbers put all 22 people in the bank against a wall in the back hallway and waited for what felt like an eternity, she said. “We didn’t hear anything about what was happening outside. We couldn’t hear the siren.”
He heard a loud voice, “Police!” And then there was a barrage of bullets, and everyone ran to hide.
Fryer said that all the police officers involved in the “absolutely insane incident” handled themselves professionally, and then later treated those who were at the bank with kindness and concern.
- Police and paramedics respond to a bank robbery at the Bank of Montreal on Shelbourne and Peer Streets on Tuesday where several people were injured in a shootout.
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Robert Gordon, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University, said violent, armed bank robberies are rare in Canada.
Gordon said the suspects may have targeted the bank based on information about unusual or large amounts of cash on the premises, possibly Brink’s delivery or cash payroll.
“Maybe they have some information about some kind of shipment sitting in that bank. There must have been something in that bank that they thought was worth grabbing,” Gordon said.
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Witness of the Saanich robbery: ‘A man is standing in the door and he has an assault rifle’
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Two suspects killed, six officers injured in firing at Sanich Bank
Although in 2013, sociologist Frederic Desroches predicted the end of bank robberies, thanks to the growing transition to a cashless society, better surveillance and better policing, robberies still occur in cases where criminals are a larger “target” at the bank. Has advance knowledge.
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“The flow of information on the movement of money is a challenge for any security organization,” Gordon said. “We still get these overnight robberies where there’s some target in the bank that’s worth it, where they’ll spend a lot of time planning it, break into the vault or the strong room. These are unusual cases, but it happens.”
Such operations require careful planning and are usually executed by “skilled or knowledgeable” groups. Gordon said that the perpetrators of the Saanich robbery looked like “amateurs”.
“The days of masked bandits breaking into the bank and waving pistols are long gone,” Gordon said. “Banks no longer hold huge amounts of cash. Security in banks is much tougher than before – there are panic buttons, CCTVs and other sophisticated methods to trap and nab people inside banks.”
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On the other hand, “low-reward” robberies are not uncommon, where bank robbers target tellers for small amounts of cash they keep in drawers. Usually, banks ask the consultants not to protest and hand over the cash when asked.
- Police and paramedics respond to a bank robbery at the Bank of Montreal on Shelbourne and Peer Streets on Tuesday where several people were injured in a shootout.
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