The shootout in North Hollywood involved two bank robbers wearing body armor and homemade body armor on their legs and carrying automatic rifles. They entered a Bank of America branch at 9:16 a.m. on February 28, 1997.
When news broke Tuesday of men in tactical gear with high-powered weapons calmly robbing a Saanich bank, followed by a shootout outside, retired Saanich detective Chris Horsley was struck by the similarities to the 1997 North Hollywood shootout that changed policing in North America .
“I immediately thought of the Bank of America shooting — that’s the first thing that came to mind because I just recognize some of the similarities between those two incidents,” said Horsley, who was asked to comment on the case.
The shootout in North Hollywood involved two bank robbers wearing body armor and homemade body armor on their legs and carrying automatic rifles. They entered the Bank of America at 9:16 a.m. on February 28, 1997.
On their way out there was a shootout.
“They were incredibly casual, but they were wearing bulletproof vests from head to toe and they had significant firepower at the time – high-velocity weapons of war,” Horsley said.
The two perpetrators died and 12 policemen and eight civilians were injured. The robbers are believed to have fired 1,100 shots, and the police, most of whom were carrying standard pistols, fired about 650.
“This was a landmark policing incident for North America,” Horsley said. “The Bank of America robbery was used to train police officers. We actually watched the video, listened to the radio broadcast of the robbery…the whole point was to learn from the incident and prepare in case something like this happened again.
This level of firepower was new to police in the late 1990s, “so the responding officers in North Hollywood had their pistols and body armor, but they just couldn’t match that firepower and the suspects casually they came out of the bank and went into action with a lot of police – luckily for everyone [the officers] survived.”
After the Bank of America robbery, long guns were introduced to patrol cars in the United States and then in Canada. “It has permeated all the way to Saanich and Victoria Police here,” Horsley said.
“In recent years, if there’s a call for service, you’ll see a police officer carrying a long gun. This has become the norm. At the time of the Bank of America robbery, that was unheard of,” Horsley said.
On Tuesday in Saanich, two heavily armed suspects in protective gear were killed and six members of the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team were injured in a shooting at the Bank of Montreal on Shelbourne Street in Saanich.
The suspects have been identified as twin brothers Isaac and Matthew Ochterlony of Duncan. Police said the brothers have no criminal records.
An Instagram account registered to @isaacauchterlonie867, which is no longer publicly available, included a link to a documentary about the shooting in North Hollywood.
In Saanich, the RCMP bomb disposal unit removed “highly hazardous” explosives from a suspicious vehicle at the scene and transported them to the Hartland Landfill for disposal.
Witness Shelley Fryer, 59, told the Times Colonist that she was in the Bank of Montreal manager’s office for a meeting when there was an “unbelievable explosion.” Then a man carrying an assault rifle and wearing a balaclava demanded access to the vault from the manager. Fryer noted that during the ordeal, the gunmen were quiet and calm. However, when they exited the building, there was a massive firefight.
“As a retired officer on the side who has gone through this training, there just seem to be so many similar parallels to this recent incident and that case from all those years ago, including the behavior of the suspects and the fact that they appear to be wearing a lot of protective gear in anticipation of, potentially, an armed meeting,” Horsley said.
Horsley said the weight of protective equipment, heavy weapons and ammunition can partly dictate how a person moves, and in the 1997 robbery the men may have had an air of invincibility because of their weapons.
According to the documentary North Hollywood Shootout — Situation Critical, both took the barbiturate phenobarbital before the robbery to calm their nerves. They allegedly filled a jam jar with petrol and placed it in the back seat of their vehicle to set it on fire and destroy evidence.
Horsley said that despite the time difference, he wondered if the case was a copycat. “Bank robberies are pretty much a thing of the past,” Horsley said. “They don’t happen as often anymore, because even if they get a little money by passing a note, they get a minimal amount.” Bank robbers are also often career criminals.
Horsley said he found it strange that Tuesday’s bank robbery, based on public reports, started with an explosion. He said standard practice was to enter the bank quietly and avoid a scene.
As for the courage shown by the officers, Horsley said it reflected their training. “I know locally, not only with Saanich Police but with other departments, those officers will be the first to go out and put themselves at risk and we’ve had a lot of incidents here in Greater Victoria where right this happens. ”
Horsley suspects there will be more tales of heroism, not just from police, but from BC EMS personnel, Saanich firefighters, other first responders and hospital staff.
Horsley, who retired as a staff detective in February, said he felt helpless to hear the news and unable to help.
“There’s a sense of helplessness that you can’t go help people who are not just your former colleagues, but many of them are your friends,” Horsley said, “but I also know that the level of training that police officers have receive in this country is very high and at times like this you will always default back to your training and the skills that were ingrained in you.’
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
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