A shooting outside a Canadian bank in British Columbia left six police officers injured and two suspects dead on Tuesday, officials said.
The suspects were killed after exchanging gunfire with police outside the bank in Saanich, according to Dean Duthie, chief of police at the Saanich Police Department.
No one inside the bank was hurt, Duthie said, noting that it was one of the most violent scenes he has seen in his nearly 27 years of service in Saanich, which is a Vancouver Island district municipality in the Greater Victoria area.
“What I know about that chaotic, tragic, dynamic, violent scene, the fact that no citizens were harmed in any way, is really incredible,” Duthie said.
Officers first responded to the scene at around 11 am, after receiving a report that two gunmen had entered a bank.
The officers approached the suspects outside the bank, Duthie told a news conference. The suspects were heavily armed and believed to be wearing bulletproof vests, he said.
During the confrontation, three officers from the Saanich Police Department and three from the Victoria Police Department were injured.
“A lot of shots were fired,” said Joan Flood, a resident of Saanich who told CNN who was in his fourth-floor apartment across the street from the bank when the shooting took place.
“I heard a gunshot and I was on my feet and I turned around in the room and then I saw the police coming to the bank with guns drawn,” she said.
Flood said that as the scene unfolded, she saw a person fall to the ground and not get up.
“While I was watching, a person came from behind the bench crouching down who definitely looked injured,” she said. “And they started crawling and then they lay down and stayed like that.”
Three of the injured officers were due to be discharged from the hospital, while the other three were undergoing surgery with more serious injuries, Duthie said Tuesday.
Homes and businesses near the scene were evacuated because of a potential explosive device in a vehicle connected to the suspects, he added.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police told CNN who is assisting the Saanich Police.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
