Three officers in ‘life threatening’ condition after Saanich gunfight

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Chief Dean Duthie said six officers were wounded and three officers are in hospital with “life threatening” conditions after Tuesday’s deadly shootout on Shelbourne Street. Of the officers in hospital, two are recovering from surgeries and one remains in ICU, requiring multiple surgeries.

“These officers were patrol front line officers,” he said. “They ran towards gunfire while most would run.”

Duthie said it was “a miracle” that there were no other casualties, crediting the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (GVERT) for being deployed on a separate dispatch and responding so quickly to the robbery. “It’s astonishing that there were no members of the public injured,” he said.

Now, the RCMP's Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit (VIIMCU) have taken the lead on the investigation and will treat the incident as an attempted murder.

RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Chris Manseau said information will be limited in this “extremely early stages” of the investigation.

“[I] do appreciate the amount of tips we have been receiving,” he said. “There’s a mountain of evidence coming at us all the time.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the VIIMCU tip line at 250-380-6211.

The identity of the two suspects who were shot and killed on the scene has still not been released, but police confirmed that explosive devices were discovered in the vehicle associated with the suspects. Officers from the BC RCMP provincial explosive disposal unit (EDU) destroyed the explosives at the Hartland Landfill in Saanich on Wednesday.

“What their intentions were—we don’t know,” Manseau said. “That information may come in the future, or we may never know.”

Police say they will continue to investigate whether a potential third suspect was at the scene, but they don’t believe there is a risk to the public.