WINNIPEG – A man will face charges after allegedly attempting to rob two GardaWorld guards who were making a cash pick up in Tyndall Park early Friday morning.
Sources close to the investigation say the suspect was working alone and used a machete to injure one of the guards.
“Two fellows were doing their jobs the best that they could and they were confronted by an armed individual and one of them was forced to discharge their firearm to protect themselves,” said Constable Eric Hofley, with the Winnipeg Police Service.
The suspect was shot in the stomach by another guard. He was taken to hospital in critical condition but has since been upgraded to stable.
It happened around 12:45 a.m. near the TD Canada Trust on the 800 block of Keewatin Street.
Frank Cormier, a Criminology Professor at the University of Manitoba says it appears the suspect did not plan the attack.
“It’s sheer desperation that they do something they normally wouldn’t do, so they might do something as stupid as try to rob people with guns using a knife or a machete,” said Cormier, “clearly they didn’t know or didn’t care that armoured car drivers do carry firearms.”
The guard who was injured by the suspect was taken to hospital in stable but has since been released.
“These guards are authorized to carry firearms and as such they will be bound by all the same rules and regulations that anyone, police officers, peace officers that sort of thing,” said Hofley.
It’s been nearly a decade since the city saw a rash of targeted armoured car attacks. In 1998, Michael Syrnyk, labeled the Yuletide Bandit, held-up nine guards in a span of four years, many of those ended in a gunfight. No one was killed and Syrnyk was eventually arrested.
The Winnipeg Police Homicide Unit is investigating this incident. Anyone with more information is asked to call investigators at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS(8477).
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