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Three of the officers remain in hospital after Tuesday’s shooting, and one officer will need more surgery.
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Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press, Denise Ryan Police officers gather after two armed men entering a bank were killed in a shootout with police in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, June 28, 2022. Photo: KEVIN LIGHT / REUTERS
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SAANIC – Numerous explosive devices were found in a vehicle linked to two robbery suspects who were shot dead in front of a bank in Saanic.
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Saanic Chief Const. Dean Dutty said Wednesday that the RCMP’s explosives disposal unit managed to transfer the devices from the vehicle to a local landfill and destroy them.
Police evacuated the area shortly after Tuesday’s shooting as an explosives unit was called.
Six police officers were shot dead and two suspects were killed in a shootout with police on Tuesday.
Dutty said three of the officers remain in hospital, including one who is in intensive care, while another officer will need more surgery.
He spoke to one of the police officers at the hospital and said that the police department would be there to support him.
“We’re here for his family, just to tell him that the police community is 100 percent behind him.”
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The chief said police were still investigating the possibility of a third suspect, although they did not believe there was a risk to the public.
He said police were acting on vague information.
“Our goal was to keep public safety,” he told police, who ordered residents near the bank to stay inside on Tuesday.
Police said in a statement that they could not confirm the identity, origin or motive of the suspects.
Work is underway to confirm the names of the suspects.
Dutty looked at most of the videos of the incident and said it was a miracle that no one else had been killed.
“It’s amazing that no other citizens or members of the public were injured,” he said, attributing the swift action to the police, who responded.
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“Both patrol officers and Greater Victoria emergency responders are (at risk) to bring about a successful and safe completion as quickly as possible.”
General view of the scene where two armed suspects were killed and six police officers were shot dead during an incident at a bank in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, on June 28, 2022 in this photo received from social media. Joan B Flood / via REUTERS THIS IMAGE IS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY LOAN. WITHOUT SALE. NO ARCHIVES. Photo by Joan B. Flood / via REUTERS
A woman trapped in a bank during the robbery told CFAX radio that she was meeting with the manager when she heard a loud explosion and then silence.
Shelley Fryer, 59, of Langford, said she looked out the door and a few feet away was a “man in full assault equipment holding an assault rifle.”
Fryer said the masked man was dressed entirely in black, wore an armored vest over his jacket and held a black rifle that was shorter and heavier than what she was used to seeing in the media.
“The energy from them was completely calm,” she said.
She heard an armed man say quietly to the Treasury manager, and the manager handed him the keys and the two left the office, she said.
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Fryer said the other suspect was walking on the floor, just walking back and forth past the office, “as if he were going for a walk in the park, just walking as if waiting for something.”
The robbers placed all 22 people in the bank next to a wall in the back hallway and they waited, which seemed like an eternity, she said. “We did not hear anything about what was happening outside. We couldn’t hear the sirens. “
She heard in a loud voice, “Police!” And then a hail of gunfire, and everyone ran to hide.
Fryer said that each of the police officers involved in the “absolutely insane incident” handled it professionally, and then later treated those who were in the bank with kindness and concern.
Police and paramedics responded to a bank robbery at the Bank of Montreal on Shelburn and Pierre streets on Tuesday, where many people were injured in a shootout.
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Violent armed bank robberies are rare in Canada, said Robert Gordon, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University.
Gordon said the suspects may have approached the bank based on information about an unusual or large amount of cash on the premises, possibly a Brink delivery or a cash payroll.
“They may have had some internal knowledge of a shipment in this bank. There had to be something in this bank that they thought was worth grabbing, ”Gordon said.
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Witness to Saanic’s robbery: “A man is standing at the door carrying a machine gun”
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Two suspects were killed and six police officers were injured in a shootout at Saanich Bank
Although sociologist Frederic Derosch predicted an end to bank robberies in 2013, thanks to the growing transition to a cashless society, improved surveillance and better police governance, robberies still occur when criminals know in advance of a major “target” in the bank.
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“The flow of information about the movement of money is a challenge for any security organization,” Gordon said. “We still get these robberies overnight, where there is a purpose in the bank that is worth placing, where they will spend a lot of time planning it, penetrating the vault or the room. These are unusual cases, but they do happen. “
Such operations require careful planning and are usually performed by “qualified or informed” groups. Gordon said the perpetrators of the Saanic robbery looked like “amateurs.”
“The days of masked bandits rushing into the bank and brandishing guns are long gone,” Gordon said. “Banks no longer hold large sums of cash. Security in banks is much more difficult than before – there are panic buttons, video surveillance and other sophisticated methods for capturing and closing people inside banks.
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Low-reward robberies, on the other hand, are not uncommon when bank robbers turn to cashiers for the small amounts of money they keep in drawers. Banks usually advise cashiers not to resist and to give cash when asked.
Police and paramedics responded to a bank robbery at the Bank of Montreal on Shelburn and Pierre streets on Tuesday, where many people were injured in a shootout.
dryan@postmedia.com
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