3 men charged after guard shot during armoured car ‘ambush’: Toronto police

An armored Garda car, in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. Photo by Dwight Burdette / Wikimedia Commons.

TORONTO—Police say an armoured car guard is in critical condition after being shot several times during a robbery attempt this morning in Toronto and that the same guards were targeted earlier this month.

Toronto police say three men have been arrested and are facing attempted murder charges and are to appear in court this afternoon.

Staff Insp. Mike Earl says the guard was “ambushed” by three males as the Garda World security company truck pulled up to service a TD Bank branch in the Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue area of Toronto.

Earl says the guard took four rounds to the body and was undergoing surgery.

He says the guard returned fire but a second guard never got out of the truck—which went into lockdown—and the suspects fled on foot.

Earl says the three men charged are all 18 years old and are also facing robbery-related charges and conspiracy charges in connection to a previous robbery attempt involving the same guards on June 5 at Bathurst Street and Lawrence Avenue in Toronto.

“It happens to be that it’s the same victims in this case that were targeted,” said Earl.

“These individuals no doubt planned this and attempted this on an earlier date,” he alleged. “And today they tried and made a similar attempt which resulted in a shootout.”

Earl says a handgun was seized during the arrests and no other suspects are being sought. He says none of the three suspects have been dealt with before by police.

“There were numerous shots fired in this incident that lasted approximately less than a minute—40 seconds, 45 seconds,” said Earl.

He said the number of shots fired was “in the double digits.”