Questions about what motivates twin brothers to enter a British Columbia bank wearing body armor and preparing for a gun battle remain unanswered, but criminologists scare Canadians in 2019 I see similarities with the other two young men who have fallen.
Professor Robert Gordon of the Department of Crime at Simon Fraser University said there are similarities between the gun battle at Saanich Bank last week and the killings of three people in British Columbia and the subsequent murders.
The search for 18-year-old Briarschmegelsky and 19-year-old Kammacloud lasted almost a month in the summer of 2019 until they were found dead in northern Manitoba.
22-year-old Mathew and Isaac Auchterlonie in Duncan, British Columbia were killed by police on June 28 in a gun battle that injured six police officers outside the Bank of Montreal branch in Saanich.
Police said the men also had explosive devices in their cars.
“There’s a bigger problem here, and I think it’s kind of fascinating. It’s the infectivity of some of these things,” Gordon said in an interview.
Attracted by firearms, the hearts of men who were “not very successful” in their lives were intrigued, pointing out that one of the twins failed to join the army.
“It’s unbelievable to come to the minds of these young men.”
According to a Canadian Army statement, Matthew Ohitarony applied to be part of the army but did not pass the aptitude test.
Isaac Auchterlonie has participated in the 2018 Soldier for a Day program.
“As the name implies, the program lasts for a day, and participants are finally provided with a certificate as a souvenir,” he said. “This is not a training activity, but a simpler” open house “, often a kind of excursion in a high school class. “
Neither man has ever been a member of the Canadian Army, he added.
Three police officers have been hospitalized, including one receiving intensive care after three surgeries.
Twin classmates described the man as “shy and quiet.”
Courtney Dougan lives in Cobble Hill and attended Frances Oldham Kelsey Middle School in Milbay, British Columbia with his twins.
“I wasn’t friends with the Auchterlonie brothers,” she said. “They were very themselves. I saw them mostly when going through halls and classrooms. They were very nice kids.”
“It’s very strange and weird,” she said, going to school with two men involved in a bank shootout.
“We are all still very shocked. We are a very close community around here,” says Dougan. “(I) am very surprised and terrified that my family is experiencing this.”
Gordon called the bank robbery and the subsequent shootout “a tragedy of wasted life, wasted talent.”
“Because they got caught up in a strange mixture of entertainment and news and decided to create their own reality.”
A comparison was made with the 1997 North Hollywood Bank of America robbery, where two robbers were killed in a shooting hail.
According to Gordon, some police stations use footage of the shootout for training purposes to understand what went wrong and what went wrong.
He said the main problem with the robbery was the heavy firepower used by the robbers while the police were not so armed.
“What happened in Victoria a week ago has some similarities in that it was a small suburban bank that was attacked,” he said.
“But it was an older man who was involved in the North Hollywood bank robbery, a man who had previously committed a crime, and had a lot of very serious firepower.”
Saanich police chief Dean Ducy said he didn’t know if the Greater Victoria emergency response team had watched the North Hollywood robbery video.
“But I know that training, research, and connections to ensure they are prepared for the most dangerous situations are what they are doing.”
According to police, an emergency response team was in the area last Tuesday for another issue and diverts to respond immediately to a bank robbery call.
Gordon understands that there are many questions about what happened last week, and people may seek answers to the old shooting. But these would be questions that police and the Independent Investigation Bureau also have on their list, he added.
“And above all, what kind of firearms were used.”
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Alex Bérubé said researchers made some initial assessments of the weapons used by the twins, but further analysis is needed.
“We are not in a position to provide details at this time,” he said in an email.
Police also failed to establish a motive, Belbe said.
“Every investigation has a theory, and investigators need to collect information and evidence and eventually eliminate or confirm those theories or explore other possibilities according to the evidence.”
Gordon said the true motive for the twin robbery of armed banks may never be known.
“Usually the motive is cash. That’s the purpose of the robbery. I don’t do it for any other reason,” he said.
“So they were probably going out to get some quick and easy money, and or with a little excitement they do it. Usually, there aren’t that many people robbing banks anymore. But it does it purely for cash. In many ways, it’s a question with a clear answer. “
Hina Alam and Dark Meissner
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