Facing ‘unbridled violence’ from B.C. bank robbers, police justified in shooting to kill, report says | 24CA News

WARNING: This story incorporates graphic depictions of violence.

A brand new report clearing police of prison wrongdoing within the taking pictures deaths of two financial institution robbers on Vancouver Island this summer season paints a dramatic image of the violent and chaotic scene that left six officers wounded and a group in shock.

The officers who responded to a Saanich Bank of Montreal on June 28 all acted lawfully once they fired the photographs that killed 22-year-old brothers Mathew and Isaac Auchterlonie, the Independent Investigations Office of B.C.’s (IIO) chief civilian director Ronald MacDonald wrote in findings launched Wednesday.

MacDonald mentioned the closely armed brothers “posed a clear and imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm” to each the general public and police once they have been killed by gunfire from Saanich law enforcement officials and members of the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (GVERT).

The Auchterlonies “had apparently equipped themselves for an extremely serious armed confrontation with police. They had reacted to police presence with unbridled violence at the upper end of the scale that could reasonably be anticipated in a civilized society,” MacDonald mentioned.

Saanich police Chief Dean Duthie and Victoria police Chief Del Manak issued a joint assertion welcoming the IIO’s findings and applauding the bravery of the officers concerned.

“Their independent and unbiased review of officers’ decisions and actions that day commends their professionalism, courage and response,” Duthie mentioned.

Brothers did not act like typical financial institution robbers

The IIO report relies on what MacDonald describes as an “extensive body of evidence,” together with statements from seven civilian witnesses and 24 law enforcement officials, recordings of 911 calls, surveillance video and smartphone video shot by witnesses and police and medical information.

It lays out how the brothers arrived on the financial institution on Shelbourne Street simply after 11 a.m. wearing saggy windbreakers over olive-coloured physique armour, “rigid protection” protecting their decrease legs, black balaclavas, fight boots and gloves.

Both males carried 7.62 mm calibre SKS semi-automatic rifles with prolonged magazines, and one had a big sheath knife tucked into his belt. 

Police would later discover a big cache of weapons, ammunition and do-it-yourself explosive units inside their automotive.

As quickly as they entered the financial institution, one of many brothers fired a single shot into the ceiling earlier than they moved workers and prospects into the vault. The robbers managed to safe “a very limited amount of cash,” then spent a number of minutes pacing and looking the window, the report says.,

That behaviour struck investigators as uncommon.

“While there is no ‘typical’ bank robbery, usually persons in this situation would attempt to escape as quickly as possible. [The Auchterlonies] did the opposite,” the report says.

Sixteen minutes after coming into the financial institution, the brothers walked into the parking zone simply as an unmarked van carrying seven GVERT members was pulling up.

CCTV cameras captured one of many brothers turning to face the van because it pulled in and elevating his rifle towards the automobile, the report says.

One of the officers opened a sliding door and tossed out a flashbang machine, desiring to distract the 2 financial institution robbers in order that they might be safely arrested.

“Unfortunately, what transpired instead, almost simultaneously with the detonation of the NFDD [noise flash diversionary device], was a lethal exchange of gunfire,” the report says.

‘It was simply horrible’

Investigators haven’t been in a position to decide conclusively who fired the primary photographs, however one civilian witness remembers one of many brothers taking pictures first.

“As soon as this van opened up, the slide, this guy starts shooting, this guy starts shooting the police and police were falling down and after that, ‘bang bang’ it goes. … It was just terrible,” the witness instructed the IIO.

The officers contained in the van additionally remembered going through gunfire as quickly because the door slid open. One mentioned he remembered listening to the flashbang, “and it was almost like a continuation right with that was another boom, and then just more boom, boom, boom,” the report says.

That officer was shot within the leg virtually instantly and fell again into the van. Another member of the staff was mendacity beside him with gunshot wounds to his higher stomach and thigh, and a 3rd was shouting that he’d been shot within the neck.

The staff medic, armed with only a pistol, then stepped in entrance of his injured colleagues and into the road of fireside and started taking pictures, in line with the IIO. The van’s driver additionally fired a minimum of 28 pistol rounds by way of the windshield.

As the GVERT members tried to assist one another with their accidents, officers from the Saanich Police Department have been working towards the scene from the north, the report says. Some started taking pictures on the brothers, whereas others ran to help with first support.

The IIO says that one of many Auchterlonies was shot within the head as he tried to maneuver throughout the parking zone from the place the place he’d been firing on the GVERT van. 

The second was hit a number of occasions whereas he shot on the van, and witnesses say they watched him staggering as he continued to shoot. When he lastly fell to the bottom, police have been shouting, “Drop your weapon,” as he tried to crawl towards his brother by way of the gunfire.

MacDonald mentioned the officers have been justified of their choice to proceed taking pictures on the crawling man as a result of his “prior actions  provided significant support for a valid belief that he still posed a very real threat.”

Autopsies later revealed that one brother had been hit by three police bullets, the opposite by 9.

The Auchterlonie brothers have been from Duncan and did not have prison information. They made up two-thirds of a set of triplets.

Isaac Auchterlonie’s Instagram account, which has since been deleted, was filled with gun images, warfare references and video of him and his brother in camouflage taking pictures rifles within the forest. 

Six law enforcement officials have been injured within the shootout, with the final one launched from hospital in September, 71 days after he was admitted and who police mentioned on the time was going through appreciable rehabilitation after present process a number of surgical procedures.