A B.C. man has been arrested and charged in connection with a violent robbery and explosion that injured two security guards at an Edmonton bank in December.
A 38-year-old man from Salmon Arm, B.C. faces multiple charges for that robbery and another two months earlier at a different bank in the city.
The police robbery section is expected to provide details about the arrest and charges at a news conference at 1 p.m. Tuesday at police headquarters downtown.
Two security officers were injured by an early morning explosion on Dec. 12, 2018, during an armed robbery inside the Scotiabank branch at 8140 160th Ave.
The officers were delivering money to an ATM at about 2:10 a.m. when an “explosive device” was detonated, police said at the time.
There was a confrontation between a suspect and one of the guards. The suspect, who was armed and wearing a disguise, ran from the scene with “money in hand,” police said.
The guards, a man and a woman employed by GardaWorld, were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Two months earlier, an improvised explosive device had detonated inside the vestibule of a southwest Edmonton bank.
No one was injured in that explosion and no money was taken, police said at the time.
Guards had just arrived at the bank on Sept. 11 “to perform their regular duties” when a loud bang startled them, police said.
Patrol officers responded at about 1:40 a.m. to a 911 call from the bank near 27th Avenue SW and 141st Street.
Paramedics treated and transported the bank guards to hospital for precautionary reasons only, police said.