Saanich, B.C., bank shooting motive may never be known, says criminologist

Questions of what would motivate twin brothers to enter a British Columbia bank dressed in body armour and prepared for a gun battle remain unanswered, but a criminologist sees similarities to two other young men who terrified Canadians in 2019.

Prof. Robert Gordon from Simon Fraser University's school of criminology said there are parallels with the Saanich bank shootout last week and the murders of three people in B.C. and the subsequent suicides of their killers.

A manhunt for Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, 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, B.C., 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 issue here, and I find it kind of fascinating, is the infectious nature of some of this stuff,” Gordon said in an interview.

The minds of men who are drawn to firearms and not doing “very well” in life are intriguing, he said, noting the failed application of one of the twins to join the armed forces.

“What gets into the minds of these young men is beyond belief.”

A statement from the Canadian Armed Forces said Mathew Auchterlonie had applied to be part of the military but didn't pass the aptitude test.