On June 28, 2022, tactical officers with the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team, members of the Saanich Police Department, and multiple supporting police agencies responded to an armed robbery at a major bank in the Capital Region of British Columbia, Canada. Initial reports were confirmed by police observations of two armed suspects inside the bank wearing balaclavas, dressed in body armor and armed with rifles. The suspects corralled bank personnel and customers into the rear vault area and waited inside the bank for approximately 15 minutes. Patrol officers arrived on-scene and initiated hostage-taking procedures. Tactical officers arrived on-scene moments before the suspects exited the bank. An Immediate Action Plan was executed to create separation between the suspects and the hostages, resulting in the death of both suspects. Six tactical officers were shot during the intervention, four of which were critically injured. The incident transitioned to a mass-casualty medical intervention and extraction of the critically injured officers, with concurrent objectives to enter the bank and secure the hostages. Subsequent on-scene actions led to the discovery of a large arsenal of IEDs, firearms, ammunition and body armor in the suspect’s vehicle within the parking lot. This debrief will review the patrol response, tactical intervention, medical care, command decisions and the investigation into this staged bank robbery, which was revealed to be a planned attack against police officers.

Staff Sergeant John Musicco has 20 years experience as a police officer with the Victoria Police Department, where he has worked on the front line, Strike Force Section and served 12 years with the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team. John held the Team Leader position for 3 years, during which he was deployed on over 700 operations. Nearly 400 of those operations were serving as a Team Leader, which included hostage rescues, barricaded subjects, high-risk arrests, containment operations and warrant service. On June 28, 2022, John was shot in the line of duty while intervening in a hostage rescue that resulted in the death of two suspects and the injury of 6 ERT members.

Damian Pellew has 11 years experience as a police officer with the Saanich Police Department in BC, Canada. Damian became an Operator with the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team in 2017 and specialized as a Breacher. In June of 2022, Damian sustained two life-threatening gunshot wounds while responding to a bank robbery and hostage taking incident involving two suspects armed with SKS rifles and wearing head-to-toe body armor. Damian was one of 6 Emergency Response Team members injured in the shootout that resulted in the death of both suspects and the successful rescue of civilians inside the bank.