Toronto police released video footage of a violent weekend bank robbery on Monday as they continued to hunt for two suspects.
In the short video clip, the two suspects are seen robbing a TD Bank near St. Clair Avenue and Runnymede Road just before 12:30 p.m. Sunday. A bank employee and a customer were shot and injured in the incident.
The injured customer, Toronto roofer Carl Fraser, remained in hospital Monday.
Fraser, 54, was shot in the abdomen outside of the bank, after he chased after the suspects as they fled the scene. His wife said she was surprised to hear of his actions.
"I was surprised by that because I don't see Carl running after people," Fraser's wife, Barbara Anderson, said Monday morning. "He's gonna pull through and he's gonna move on."
Police say the two suspects walked into the bank and ordered everyone to the ground. While investigators initially believed one of them was armed with a shotgun, they now say only one man was armed and it was with a silver semi-automatic handgun.
"One person jumped the counter while the other person took control," Staff Insp. Mike Earl said.
It appears Fraser wasn't moving as quickly as the robbers liked, so the man with the handgun fired a shot, missing Fraser and striking a 22-year-old bank teller in the leg, police said.
As the robbers ran out of the bank, Fraser ran after them. He was shot in the parking lot.
"Carl's got a good heart and he would do anything for anybody," friend and former roofing colleague Mark Bosa said at the hospital. "Carl's hard as nails."
While Fraser's wife and 30-year-old daughter, Alisha, were surprised by Fraser's actions, Bosa was not.
"If you point a gun at him, he's not going to back down," Bosa said. "I'm sure he feels bad that somebody (the bank teller) got injured and it definitely wasn't his intention for somebody to get injured."
When Bosa and Fraser worked together in the 1990s, they spent a lot of time doing business in banks, Bosa said. "He'd always say, 'Nobody better try to rob the bank when I'm here,' and I would say, 'Carl, let them,'" to which Fraser would say, "'I'm not built that way.'"
Fraser's family expect him to remain in hospital until next week after undergoing surgery on Sunday.
The two suspects in the case are described as black males in their 20s. At the time of the robbery, one was wearing a quilted winter vest and the other was wearing a Chicago White Sox hat. Both suspects were wearing jeans and hooded sweatshirts.
Police said the suspects were seen fleeing the scene in a green, 1998 Honda civic with the licence plate AKAC 786. The car -- which was reported stolen Saturday -- was found empty and abandoned on Sunday evening.
The suspects are considered armed and dangerous.
A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the suspects. The amount of the reward -- which is being offered by the Canadian Bankers Association -- will be determined by police depending on the information provided.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Toronto Police Hold-Up Squad at 416-808-7350. Anonymous tips can be left through Crime Stoppers by calling 416-222-8477 or texting TOR and your tip to CRIMES.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Tamara Cherry
