Saanich bank shooting: True motive may never be known, criminologist says

There are parallels to the Saanich bank shooting last week and the murders of three people in BC in 2019 and the subsequent suicides of their killers.

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Questions about what would motivate the twin brothers to enter a BC bank dressed in bulletproof vests and prepared for a shootout remain unanswered, but a criminologist sees similarities to two other young men who terrorized Canadians in 2019.

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Professor Robert Gordon, of Simon Fraser University’s school of criminology, said there were parallels to the Saanich bank shooting last week and the murders of three people in British Columbia and the subsequent suicides of their killers.

The manhunt for 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky and 19-year-old Kam McLeod lasted nearly a month in the summer of 2019 before they were found dead in northern Manitoba.

Twenty-two-year-old Mathew and Isaac Auchterlonie, of Duncan, were killed by police in a shootout that left six officers injured outside a Bank of Montreal branch in Saanich on June 28.

Police have said the men also had explosive devices in their vehicle.

“There’s a bigger problem here, and I find it somewhat fascinating, is the infectious nature of some of these things,” Gordon said in an interview.

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Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, were found dead by RCMP on August 7, 2019.
Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, were found dead by RCMP on August 7, 2019. Photo by RCMP

The minds of men who are drawn to firearms and aren’t doing “very well” in life are intriguing, he said, noting one of the twins’ unsuccessful application to join the military.

“What gets into the minds of these young people is unbelievable.”

A statement from the Canadian Armed Forces said Mathew Auchterlonie had applied to join the military but failed the aptitude test.

Isaac Auchterlonie participated in the Soldier for a Day program in 2018, he said.

“As the name implies, the program lasts one day and participants receive a certificate at the end as a souvenir,” he said. “It’s not a training activity, but more of a simple ‘open house’ and often a type of field trip for high school classes.”

Neither man has been part of the Canadian Armed Forces in any capacity, he added.

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Three officers remain in the hospital, including one who is in intensive care after three surgeries.

A classmate of the twins described the men as “shy and quiet.”

Photo by Mathew and Isaac Auchterlonie of Duncan, provided by BC RCMP.  Police have identified the twin brothers, 22, as the suspects in a shooting at the Bank of Montreal in Saanich on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
Photo by Mathew and Isaac Auchterlonie of Duncan, provided by BC RCMP. Police have identified the twin brothers, 22, as the suspects in a shooting at the Bank of Montreal in Saanich on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Photo by HANDOUT/BC RCMP /jpg

Courtney Dougan lives in Cobble Hill and attended Frances Kelsey High School in Mill Bay with the twins.

“I was not friends with the Auchterlonie brothers,” she said. “They were very much for themselves. I saw them mainly passing through the corridors or in the classrooms. They were very nice kids.”

Going to school with two men now involved in a bank shooting is “very weird and strange,” he said.

“We are all very surprised still. It’s a tight-knit community around here,” Dougan said. “(I am) very shocked and I feel very bad for the family that is going through this.”

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Gordon called the bank robbery and subsequent shooting a “tragedy of wasted life, wasted talent.”

“Because they get caught up in a weird mix of entertainment and news, and they decide to create their own reality.”

Comparisons of the shooting have been drawn to the 1997 North Hollywood Bank of America robbery, where two robbers were killed in a hail of gunfire.

Gordon said some police departments use footage of that shooting for training purposes to understand what went wrong and what went right.

The main problem with that robbery was the heavy firepower used by the robbers, while the police were not as well armed, he noted.

“What happened a week ago in Victoria has some similarity in that it was a small suburban bank that was attacked,” he said.

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“But the guys who were involved in the North Hollywood bank robbery were older men, experienced men who had committed crimes before and who had a lot of really serious firepower.”

Const. of the Saanich police chief. Dean Duthie said he doesn’t know if the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team has seen video of the robbery in North Hollywood.

“But I know that the training, the research and the connections to make sure they are prepared for the most dangerous situations is something that they do.”

The emergency response team was in the area last Tuesday on another matter and changed course to immediately respond to the bank robbery call, police said.

Gordon said he understands there are a number of questions about what happened last week, and people might look to that old shooting for answers. But these would be questions that the police and the Office of Independent Investigations also have on their list, he added.

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“And the most important thing is what kind of firearms were being used.”

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Alex Berube said investigators have made some initial assessments of the weapons used by the twins, but more analysis is needed.

“We are not in a position to provide further details at this time,” he said in an email.

Police have also been unable to establish a motive, Berube said.

“Every investigation has theories and investigators need to gather information and evidence and ultimately eliminate or confirm those theories or even follow the evidence to other possibilities.”

Gordon said the true motive for the twins’ armed robbery of the bank may never be known.

“Usually the motive is cash. That is the purpose of a robbery. You’re not doing it for any other reason,” she said.

“So they were probably looking for quick and easy money. And or do it with a little emotion. Usually people who rob banks, there aren’t that many anymore, do it solely for cash. It’s a question with an obvious answer, in many respects.”

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