Six police officers were injured in the shooting, but brothers Isaac and Mathew Auchterlonie of Duncan were both killed. By March 2020, Global News learned that Isaac was working at Canadian Tire in Duncan, where he and Matthew’s apparent love of guns developed. The brothers worked at Pacific Energy in Duncan until late June. The company manufactures wood stoves and gas fireplaces. “We can confirm that they were employed at our facilities from November 2021 to June 2022,” Cory Iversen with Pacific Energy said in a statement. “While they were working with us, they gave no indication of the behavior they were capable of. Story continues below ad “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and answering any questions that may help shed light on this tragedy. We would like to thank the brave police officers who participated in the senseless violence of June 28th. We wish those injured in the line of duty a full and speedy recovery.” A former classmate of the brothers said they attended Frances Kelsey Secondary School in Mill Bay. “I knew them from high school as really nice guys who usually hung out with each other, but they had a good company,” Tanner Jacobs told Global News, adding that he had lost touch with them in recent years.
Read more: ‘We huddled under the bush’: Witness describes seeing shots fired outside Saanich BC bank
Police say the 22-year-old brothers are behind last Tuesday’s botched bank robbery in Saanich. Story continues below ad After an exchange of gunfire between the brothers and the police, three officers from the Saanich Police Department were injured, while three officers from the Victoria Police Department were also injured. Retired Saanich police officer Chris Horsley told Global News he immediately noticed the similarities between this incident and the 1997 North Hollywood shootout. Trending Stories
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“That’s the first thing I thought of when I heard how they were dressed,” Horsley said. “It’s really the worst case scenario because these suspects appear to have gone and prepared for an armed encounter.” 2:37 Similarities between BMO Saanich robbery and 1997 North Hollywood shootout In 1997, two bank robbers wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles attempted to rob a Bank of America in North Hollywood before engaging in a lengthy standoff with police, most of whom were armed only with revolvers. Story continues below ad “They were in one of the biggest cities in America, but they managed to hold off the LAPD for about 45 minutes,” Horsley added. Both suspects were killed and 18 people, including 11 officers, were injured in the gun battle that Horsley said changed policing in North America. “It’s the norm now for police agencies to carry some form of long gun or rifle in their vehicles,” he said. The subject of the fight was an Instagram post in 2021 on an account in Isaac’s name. The account has now been deleted.
Read more: 6 officers injured in shooting in Saanich, BC bank, 2 suspects killed
2:29 The Duncan Twins, BC identified as dead Saanich bank robbery suspects Previous Video Next Video
Christian Leuprecht, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, called the case “strange.” Story continues below ad “The bank raid itself is rather confusing and the fact that they show up heavily armed for this type of raid, given that no resistance is expected from the bank, so if you’re looking for resistance you’ll be outside the bank,” he told Global News. “People will know that these days it’s very difficult to get away with these kinds of stunts, that the police are quite responsive. Emergency response teams over the past 20 years have been quite flexible and responsive to threats to public safety.” Leuprecht said he thought it didn’t look like a particularly professional operation, given that most bank robberies take place when the thieves go after the money transfer rather than the bank itself. “So that’s what makes me think that if they have social media posts that clearly show some affinities to past shootings, that’s when they show some affinity for extremists, extremist views, disaffected perspectives on government, which usually translates into contempt of authority and law enforcement.” He added that this may be why the brothers also ended up shooting because they could have easily given themselves up. “It is entirely possible that the shootout was the intended goal of the bank robbery and not the robbery itself.” © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
