Facing 'unbridled violence' from B.C. bank robbers, police justified in shooting to kill, report says

WARNING: This story contains graphic depictions of violence.

A new report clearing police of criminal wrongdoing in the shooting deaths of two bank robbers on Vancouver Island this summer paints a dramatic picture of the violent and chaotic scene that left six officers wounded and a community in shock.

The officers who responded to a Saanich Bank of Montreal on June 28 all acted lawfully when they fired the shots 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 released Wednesday.

MacDonald said the heavily armed brothers "posed a clear and imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm" to both the public and police when they were killed by gunfire from Saanich police officers 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 said.

Saanich police Chief Dean Duthie and Victoria police Chief Del Manak issued a joint statement welcoming the IIO's findings and applauding the bravery of the officers involved.

"Their independent and unbiased review of officers' decisions and actions that day commends their professionalism, courage and response," Duthie said.

Brothers didn't act like typical bank robbers

The IIO report is based on what MacDonald describes as an "extensive body of evidence," including statements from seven civilian witnesses and 24 police officers, recordings of 911 calls, surveillance video and smartphone video shot by witnesses and police and medical records.

It lays out how the brothers arrived at the bank on Shelbourne Street just after 11 a.m. dressed in baggy windbreakers over olive-coloured body armour, "rigid protection" covering their lower legs, black balaclavas, combat boots and gloves.

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

Police would later find a large cache of guns, ammunition and homemade explosive devices inside their car.

As soon as they entered the bank, one of the brothers fired a single shot into the ceiling before they moved staff and customers into the vault. The robbers managed to secure "a very limited amount of cash," then spent several minutes pacing and looking out the window, the report says.

That behaviour struck investigators as unusual.

"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 entering the bank, the brothers walked into the parking lot just as an unmarked van carrying seven GVERT members was pulling up.

CCTV cameras captured one of the brothers turning to face the van as it pulled in and raising his rifle toward the vehicle, the report says.

One of the officers opened a sliding door and tossed out a flashbang device, intending to distract the two bank robbers so they could 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 just terrible'

Investigators have not been able to determine conclusively who fired the first shots, but one civilian witness remembers one of the brothers shooting 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 told the IIO.

The officers inside the van also remembered facing gunfire as soon as the door slid open. One said he remembered hearing 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 in the leg almost immediately and fell back into the van. Another member of the team was lying beside him with gunshot wounds to his upper abdomen and thigh, and a third was shouting that he'd been shot in the neck.

The team medic, armed with just a pistol, then stepped in front of his injured colleagues and into the line of fire and began shooting, according to the IIO. The van's driver also fired at least 28 pistol rounds through the windshield.

As the GVERT members tried to help each other with their injuries, officers from the Saanich Police Department were running toward the scene from the north, the report says. Some began shooting at the brothers, while others ran to assist with first aid.

The IIO says that one of the Auchterlonies was shot in the head as he tried to move across the parking lot from the position where he'd been firing at the GVERT van. 

The second was hit several times while he shot at the van, and witnesses say they watched him staggering as he continued to shoot. When he finally fell to the ground, police were shouting, "Drop your weapon," as he tried to crawl toward his brother through the gunfire.

MacDonald said the officers were justified in their decision to continue shooting at the crawling man because 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 other by nine.

The Auchterlonie brothers were from Duncan and didn't have criminal records. They made up two-thirds of a set of triplets.

Isaac Auchterlonie's Instagram account, which has since been deleted, was full of gun photos, war references and video of him and his brother in camouflage shooting rifles in the forest. 

Six police officers were injured in the shootout, with the last one released from hospital in September, 71 days after he was admitted and who police said at the time was facing considerable rehabilitation after undergoing multiple surgeries.