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ALi prose 3D CRE NMI ret oes ER. BE ERE REE "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" The first shocking hour after five shot at Port Perry Plaza By J. Peter Hvidsten Port Perry Star I was sitting on the bed with the twins snuggled in my arms while Nancy read their bedtime story Thursday night when the phone rang about 7:40 p.m. This was to have been an enjoyable time with the kids before heading off to Toronto for a two-day publishers conference. But the mood was broken instantly by that phone call. A robbery was in progress at the Bank of Montreal, so I left my family sitting on the bed as I grabbed my camera and headed towards Port Perry Plaza. Two police cars and an ambulance were on the scene as I arrived, and as I neared the flashing red lights of one cruiser I noticed the right front tire of the cruiser was flattened, and the pavement was blacked by a greasy fluid. People were milling about dazed and confused as I jumped from the van and headed toward the disabled cruiser. It was only then that I realized the magnitude of what happened... or at least I thought I did! Fifty yards away from the cruiser an officer, shot in the bungled hold-up attempt, was being comforted by a couple of strangers as he lay on the cold concrete. In the disabled cruis- er, ambulance attendants frantically assisted a wounded offic- er, still sitting behind the wheel of his cruiser. The window on the drivers side was shattered, and two small holes were evident in the front windshield, where bullets had pierced the glass. It wasn't until the beam of flashlight operated by an ambulance attendant in the cruiser illuminated the face of the downed officer, that I realized how serious this situation was. When the light flashed onto the face of the officer, I found myself looking at not a police officer, but a frightened young man whose face was covered with blood. The sight frightened me, and I found myself asking... how could this happen in Port Perry? And I wasn't the only one asking that question on this cool October night, as I heard a number of people saying, "these things don't happen in Port Perry. They only happen in big cities." But they're wrong. We don't want to believe it. 1 : ' We still think Port Perry is an Police officer S innocent small community, but it is changing, just like the oth face was of the world. Incidents like this . can happen anywhere and Pon cover ed with Perry is not isolated from this a, blood as he As I looked around the scene ambulances and police cars, with their lights flashing and sirens wailing, continued to arrive on the scene. Many of the young officers looked disbeliev- ingly on the carnage before their eyes. sat behind wheel of his cruiser Beside me, lying on the cold cement were at least a dozen shiny, copper shell casings from some lethal weapon. A weapon one witness described as looking like an Uzi machine gun. Along the sidewalk and leading up to a pillar was a trail of blood, ending in a larger pool at its base. The pillar had been hit by bullets, knocking out a large piece of the brick structure. Shell casings along with brick fragments covered the pavement. Talking with witnesses to the carnage I heard one man say he saw two masked men running from the bank, one with a bag and the other with a gun, but he thought it was just a cou- ple of kids having some fun. Another witness told me how he ducked below the dash- board of his truck when the gun shots started, hoping that he wouldn't be hit. And yet another, trembling so badly she could hardly hold a cigarette between her fingers, said the gunman had looked her right in the eyes and she thought he was about to shoot her. Leaving the confusion of the plaza behind I headed west on 7A Highway, where I ran into a roadblock half way to Manchester. Three police vehicles, with red lights flashing, blocked the road and I was forced to stop about 20 yards from one stretched across the middle of the highway. Officers shielded themselves behind each of the vehicles with shotguns raised and ready for any confrontation. On a signal to advance, I inched forward and stopped, where an officer did a quick inspection of the van's interior with a flashlight, before being told to move along. In Manchester, at the corner of 7A and #12 Hwys., three more cruisers with armed officers blocked all traffic trying to enter Port Perry. After passing through the blockade, I pulled over and went back to take a few photos of the officers standing guard. Finishing all I could do, I headed off to Toronto, checked into my hotel room near the airport and tuned on the news, only to find the Port Perry story was the top news story of the day. Somehow, that didn't surprise me a bit. Local police officers 'doing their jobs' after cops shot Community shows support for fallen officers By Jeff Mitchell Port Perry Star Durham Regional Police offi- cers in Port Perry were stoically doing their jobs Friday, after three of their colleagues were cut down in a vicious gunfight. Sgt. Ken Hudson, spokesman at 26 Division in Port Perry, said officers here were stunned and angered when Constables Mark McConkey and Warren Ellis, as well as Det. Paul Mooy, were shot by bandits fleeing a robbery at the Bank of Montreal in the Port Perry Plaza on Scugog St. "Obviously it's hard to put words to something like this, when you've got three of your men gunned down," he said. "I know I'm upset, but who the hell wouldn't be that has a heart between their shoulders? "The men drove in, doing their job, and were confronted by an assault rifle," Sgt. Hudson continued. "How do you handle that?" Det. Mooy, 45, sustained severe arm injuries when the gunmen opened fire in the park- ing lot of the plaza. Constables Ellis, 28, and McConkey, 45, were hit in the head. Witnesses said a police cruis- er pulled into the plaza parking lot quietly, while the robbers were still in the bank at the corner of the plaza. When the robbers emerged and saw police they opened fire with a semi- automatic weapon, firing up to a dozen rounds in two distinct bursts. The cruiser in which the two constables were riding was rid- dled with bullets, its windows smashed and tires shot out. Det. Mooy was left slumped CONST. MARK McCONKEY against a cement post, bleeding profusely from his wound. A stray bullet smashed through a window of the Sutton Group real estate office across the highway from the plaza, wounding real estate agent Debbie Taylor, 41; Bank of Montreal manager Alan Knight, 45, was shot in the leg by ban- dits as he attempted to comply with their demands for money. The vicious assault left the community stunned. And offi- cers at the local division are Just as vulnerable to the shock, said Sgt. Hudson. "You don't expect this to hap- pen," he said Friday. "You're conditioned to it, but you still don't expect it to happen. "To use that kind of weapon, it's just devastating." Word came Friday morning that one suspect had been apprehended in Kingston, then another; but there was little rejoicing at 26 Division, said DET. PAUL MOOY Sgt. Hudson. "We're still subdued," he said. "You certainly feel great that (suspects are) caught, but..." Support for local police was quick in coming after the 7:30 robbery and gunfight. Metro police officers, on and off-duty, immediately mobilized and descended on the community. OPP from nearby detachments manned roadblocks in an attempt to stop the gunmen from fleeing the area. And cards and flowers addressed to the wounded offi- cers began to flow into 26 Division offices on Old Simcoe Rd. Friday. The support of the community was a big help dur- ing a troubled time, said an emotional Sgt. Hudson. "Tell them we really appreci- ate the support," he told a reporter. "We're dedicated to keeping this community a nice place." By J. Peter Hvidsten Port Perry Star work. split second. scene of a bank robbery. Turn to next page Just like a lot of other Scugog resi- | dents, Thursday night is one that | Mark Smith won't quickly forget. It was a normal evening at his Sutton Group office, with he and agent Debra-Ann Taylor finishing up a day's But this all changed in a chilling, Mr. Smith, who had been working at a desk in the reception area got up and headed to a downstairs office when he heard, what he described as a "small explosion," at the top of the stairs. Real estate agent Debra-Ann Taylor had sat down at the same desk seconds after Mr. Smith left to work on an offer. As fate would have it, at the precise moment Ms. Taylor sat down to work, two men fleeing from the Bank of Montreal across the street turned and fired at police officers arriving on the One of those bullets travelled more than 400 yards, across the plaza park- ing lot, Scugog Street and through the window of the Sutton Group office. The high powered bullet pierced the window leaving a pencil-size hole in the glass, damaging the Venetian blinds, scraping the paint off a steel hand rail as it passed under the bar and lodged in the upper left shoulder of Ms. Taylor who was facing away from Real estate agent struck by bullet from fleeing robbers Mark Smith points out the hole left In an office window by a bullet which entered the building, wounding real estate agent Debra-Ann Taylor as she was working at the reception desk. J. PETER HVIDSTEN / PORT PERRY STAR