Six B.C. police officers from Saanich and Victoria are still recovering Wednesday morning following a shooting at a bank in Saanich Tuesday.
“Yesterday in a terrible and violent act, three officers from Saanich and three from Victoria were injured in the line of duty, some with very serious injuries,” the mayors of Esquimalt, Saanich and Victoria said in a statement Wednesday.
“When these kinds of actions happen, our police departments and our communities that support them are shaken to the core.”
Saanich police officers responded Tuesday morning to a report of armed suspects at the Bank of Montreal in the 3600-block of Shelbourne Street in the community north of Victoria.
Multiple officers responded to the scene and encountered the armed suspects who fired at police.
Police said two suspects were shot and killed at the scene.
“To the officers who were injured and to their families, our thoughts are with you and we are sending love as you move through the following days, weeks and months in recovery,” mayors Fred Haynes and Lisa Helps said in the statement.
“We are humbled by your service and we offer our heartfelt thanks for your courage as you stood in harm’s way to keep our communities safe.”
Beau Schultz, who lives nearby, said they were just getting out of the shower when they saw police officers outside their house.
“It started out very simply with just the two cops that I saw,” Schultz told Global News.
“What I saw next was two people leaving the bank and they were armed and they also, I don’t really know how to describe how they were dressed, but you could tell they were trying to conceal who they were.”
Helps and Haynes said they want all police officers to know the communities support them through this challenging time.
“In times like these we all pull together — boards, sworn officers, civilian staff and management. We stand beside each other and we take care of those most affected, including the psychological trauma of being involved in an incident like this.
“To the public, incidents like the one experienced by Saanich and VicPD remind all of us of the courage it takes to be a police officer and of the selfless service of all our officers as they serve our communities on a daily basis, not knowing what a shift might bring. Finding ways to show support in the coming days and weeks is really important and we encourage everyone to do so.”
On Wednesday, B.C.’s Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the main concern is that the injured officers are recovering.
“That’s where our thoughts are, for those officers and the families in what is an absolutely horrific and tragic, terrible situation,” he said. “I, like you and everybody else, am waiting for an update in that situation.”
Farnworth said he will be talking with Sannich police Chief Const. Dean Duthie on Wednesday and there will be an investigation into what happened.
“We need to get a thorough understanding of what took place, what the situation was, how it happened so that we can do everything we can to learn from it,” he added.
Canadian officials and police departments also reached out on social media Tuesday, expressing their shock and dismay at what happened.
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