Talk:1973 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce bank robbery

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Why the shot?

Why did the police fire on the robber, knowing that that would probably set off the bomb? Why would they put a fellow officer at risk when they were in a good position to follow the robber and capture him.Bill (talk) 07:10, 29 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe they wanted to kill him before he could make strategic use of his bomb, or before he could get near any other people with it. The robber had the switch for the bomb between his teeth, so an officer beside him was in extreme danger regardless. TooManyFingers (talk) 17:08, 28 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Undercover officer and sniper

In the article it says an undercover police officer told the robber he would help him escape, and that "a police sniper" shot the robber, but there is no indication how these officers got there in the first place. The article is missing essential information.

Kenora currently has a population under 15,000, and it was most likely smaller than that in 1973, because in 2000 it was amalgamated with surrounding areas. Surely, rural Canadian police in 1973 would not have been able or willing to place a permanent undercover officer in every bank.

The undercover officer and the sniper clearly both survived, so it seems very unlikely that any of this could be a mystery.

It probably makes the most sense (according to how the events are described here) that there was prior warning that a man was preparing to rob the bank in a certain way, allowing specialized officers to arrive ahead of time, but nothing like that is actually mentioned in the article – and if it's true, who knew to give the warning?

It seems much less plausible that enough regular officers were available to conceal one of them outside the bank with a rifle, and it seems as if it would require an incredibly fast and incredibly accurate response from local police while reading the robber's mind – and in that case, who called the police? TooManyFingers (talk) 16:47, 28 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]