The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

"A Family Tradition for 128 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1994 -3 NIGHTMARE STILL HAUNTS HOSTAGE VICTIMS "We thought it was our last day on earth" Eye witness recalls terror as two armed bandits shoot bank manager By Jeff Mitchell Port Perry Star Gail Verwoerd's hands began to shake -- again -- as she recalled watching in horror while a masked bandit calmly raised a handgun and shot a man. "Once we heard that shot, we were all sure we were going to get it," she said. Mrs. Verwoerd was one of two customers in the Bank of Montreal on Scugog St. around 7:25 Thursday night when two masked men burst in, bran- dishing weapons and screaming instructions at terrified tellers. The unbelievable experience became almost surreal when a bandit, frustrated when bank manager Alan Knight told him he was unable to unlock a vault, raised a handgun and shot the manager in the leg above the knee. "He (the gunman) was just yelling the whole time, and then the swearing and the whole business," said Mrs. Verwoerd, 52, at her Greenbank home Friday afternoon. "Nobody was ~ moving fast enough for them." 'And he shot him' One bandit appeared to be in charge, shouting instructions and orders at bank staff and the two customers, said Mrs. Verwoerd, while the other masked man was quieter, apparently following the lead of "the mouthy one". The leader wanted access to the bank's treasury, she said. He demanded Mr. Knight open locks, and became angered when the manager replied he was unable to comply. "He shouted, 'Somebody get me the keys -- I'm going to shoot somebody.' "And with that, he shot him. He took the handgun from the other guy, and he shot him." Mr. Knight, wounded above the knee, sank to the floor with acry as bank employees and the two customers looked on in horror. "Not anybody in that build- ing will ever forget the crack of that gun," said Mrs. Verwoerd, Gail Verwoerd and husband Hank at their Greenbank home Friday. She was in Bank of Montreal when armed ban- dits struck Thursday night. an obstetrics nurse at Community Memorial Hospital in Port Perry. "I've never heard a gun fired, at least not at a human being. "At that point, we were all sure we were going to be shot. "We thought it was our last day on earth." Husband outside The evening started inno- cently for Mrs. Verwoerd and husband Hank, who stopped at the Bank of Montreal for cash before enjoying a fish and chip dinner in Port Perry. Mr. Verwoerd pulled the van into a parking spot about 30 feet from the bank and waited while his wife went inside to make her withdrawal. She could have easily used the automatic banking machine by the door, but opted to do business with a teller; she's banked there for years, and enjoys chatting with employees. Just after his wife entered the bank, Mr. Verwoerd saw the bandits on the move. Both wore balaclavas and entered the bank with weapons drawn, he said. "I thought, this is for real," he said Friday. "This is not Halloween. We have the real thing on our hands here." To his horror, Mr. Verwoerd watched as one bandit took up a lookout position by the window while the other disappeared inside the bank. He realized he had to phone police, but feared making a move for the cellular phone in his van. "lI kept very still," said Mr. Verwoerd. "I didn't move." When the lookout left the bank window, he edged out of his van and dashed between cars across the parking lot, finally bursting into a real estate office and screaming at the receptionist on duty. "I yelled at the young girl," he said. "I said, 'Call 911! Quick! ...the poor kid." The receptionist was petri- fied but Mr. Verwoerd finally coaxed her to dial the regional emergency number. An operator took details from him and dis- patched police to the scene "within seconds," he said. Heard shots Mr. Verwoerd stayed in the office and didn't hear police arrive, but couldn't miss the shots that rang out when the bandits emerged from the bank and found the officers on the scene. "I heard at least eight to ten shots," he said, noting the bursts came in two distinct volleys. He says now that he man- aged to avoid freezing in the face of a horrible situation by realizing something had to be done. "I was extremely worried, but I set that aside," said Mr. Verwoerd. "My first thought was Gail, and (calling) 911. "I thought, I've got to get the police. This is going on unno- ticed." Inside the bank, Mrs Verwoerd was trying to stay calm. "I was just playing the mouse in the corner and watching it," she said, "or not watching it; I was trying harder than hard not to make eye contact with them." She said bank employees managed to keep their heads, even after the brutal shooting of Mr. Knight. "The girls in the bank did an absolutely superb job of hanging onto it," she said. "Nobody panicked; they were superb." | Elderly woman 'terrified' as masked men with guns burst into her home by Kelly Lown Port Perry Star «] was terrified," Marjorie Pearce said of her ordeal after two masked gunmen, wanted for five shootings at the Bank of Montreal, broke into her home and held her hostage. Mrs. Pearce, 74, had just finished watching Jeopardy, and shut the television off when two men smashed the glass patio doors on the deck of her Major Street home, shortly after 8 p.m. answer. "I had no idea about what had happened. It is probably a good thing I didn't know they had just shot five people," she told the Star, as she may not have been able to remain calm. When her husband returned home, the bandits told him to get the keys for the van and drive them to Toronto. "I don't know what happened, and you can imagine what was going on in my mind at this time, but somewhere along the way they changed their mind and told him to drive them to With a sack of cash, the thieves fled the bank. Mrs. Verwoerd recalls hearing the gunfire outside, but said she was more concerned with the fallen Mr. Knight. She went to him and checked his wound, which seemed to her inexperienced eye to be at least "clean". "I'm a nurse; he was shot," she said. "I've never seen a gunshot wound -- I deliver babies." ALAN KNIGHT BANK MGR. SHOT IN LEG When the shooting stopped and police and ambulance crews arrived, Mrs. Verwoerd and her husband were taken to the Durham Regional Police station in Port Perry, where they gave a statement and were eventu- ally released. The experience left her shaken, she said at her home Friday. 'l was terrified' "I walked in here, locked the doors and closed the curtains, and then shut out the lights. and then I didn't get much sleep last night. "I was terrified," she said. "When I talk about it, I'm still shaking." She was aided Friday by a "debriefing" session put on by Bank of Montreal-employed psychologists. Employees who endured Thursday night's terror were encouraged to bear their feelings, rather than internal- izing them. She was planning to attend a similar session Friday night. And news Friday morning that two suspects had been picked up in Kingston was also soothing. "I think I will have a better time with it knowing they're behind bars," she said. "It's tied up the loose ends." Still, Mrs. Verwoerd knows she won't soon be free of the memories of last Thursday i rrific explosion, the glass just exploded," she said of = Community Memorial Hospital." tho renin, ® BE) i Mr. Pearce and his van were left unharmed at the hospital, Mrs. Pearce, looking out the driveway level window of her home, from where Mr. Pearce made his way home to check on his wife had no idea of the events which had just unfolded downtown, when and to telephone police. two men wearing ski-masks and carrying guns "flew down the level "He (Harry) is okay. He just did what they told him to do and of stairs," to where she was. didn't try to do anything else," Mrs. Pearce said. ) The house was locked and lit up when the men broke into her "They never touched me or threatened me in any way," she home she said, but they turned all the lights out as they came in, added. leaving the "house in total darkness." It will take a while for the Pearces to get over their ordeal. "They told me to go into the living room and sit down. One of the Mrs. Pearce admits she is still quite terrified, but that she and men watched me, while the other looked out the window. That is Harry are "alright." N | when they asked for the keys to the van," she said. The onslaught of press and television crews coming to her Mrs. Pearce informed the bandits, at their insistence, that her home on Friday did take a toll on the woman, who said she husband Harry had left a while earlier to take their dog Kelly for a spent a large part of the day at her neighbors to get away from walk. She told them she was unsure when he would return. it all. Mr. Pearce later told his wife he knew there was some sort of To say that Mr. and Mrs. Pearce were relieved to hear of the police activity downtown as he had seen several ambulance and suspected bandits' capture on Friday morning was an police cars, but he did not know the extent of the events. understatement. During her 20-25 minute ordeal, Mrs. Pearce did ask the men "Relieved? Very. Wouldn't you be? I would certainly hate for where they came from and who they were, but said they did not this to happen to anyone," she said. night. "It's going to take a while," she said. "This is going to take a while." \Y[0]a]= ofe)v3a7:e] = AND SUSPECT a [OJROISNO\ ANCISSIR ORE