According to Dean Duthie, the chief constable of the Saanich Police DepartmentSaanich Police Department, said the suspects were killed after exchanging fire with police outside the bank in Saanich.
No one inside the bank was hurt, according to Duthie, who said it was one of the most violent scenes he's seen in his nearly 27 years of service in Saanich, a district municipality on Vancouver Island in the Greater Victoria area.
Duthie said that the fact that no citizens were injured in any way is truly amazing and that's what I know about that chaotic, tragic, dynamic, violent scene.
Officers responded to the scene around 11 a.m. after receiving a report that two armed men had entered a bank.
Officers engaged the suspects outside the bank, Duthie said at a news conference. He said the suspects were heavily armed and believed to be wearing body armor. Three officers from the Saanich Police DepartmentSaanich Police Department and three from the Victoria Police Department were injured during the confrontation. Joan Flood, a Saanich resident who told CNN she was in her fourth-floor apartment across the street from the bank when the shooting happened, said a lot of shots were fired. On Tuesday, police officers gather at the scene of a shooting in Saanich, British Columbia. I heard a gunshot and I was standing and turned around in the living room and saw the police coming up to the bank with guns drawn, she said. Flood said she saw a person fall to the ground and not get back up as the scene unfolded. She said a person coming from behind the bank crouched over who looked like they were hurt. They started to crawl and then they laid down and stayed that way. Three of the injured officers were expected to be released from the hospital while the other three were undergoing surgery with more serious injuries, Duthie said Tuesday. He said homes and businesses near the scene were evacuated because of a potential explosive device in a vehicle connected to the suspects. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police told CNN it was assisting the Saanich Police.