A Moncton, N.B., man is still reeling after an alleged bank robber broke into his house and set it on fire before the suspect was fatally shot by police this past weekend.
Robbie Justason said he not only had to flee his home when the intruder took over, but he watched in disbelief as the suspect shot at police during a two-hour standoff and used gasoline to set everything ablaze.
“It sounded like a war zone is the best way I could describe it,” said Justason.
Justason said he was working from his home in his basement when he heard loud banging on the back door at around 2 p.m. Saturday.
When he walked upstairs, he saw a man with a gun attempting to break the glass in the back door.
“I tried to scream at him, tell him to get away from my house,” he recalled.
“This is where my family lives, so I tried to protect my house, but when somebody’s got a gun pointed at you, there’s not really much you can do.”
Justason said the man was beating at the door and “very obviously was committed to getting in the house,” so he decided to run out.
“I heard the glass shatter, and at that point I knew he was in the house,” he said.
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At the same time, RCMP were responding to a report of a man who had robbed a bank on Mountain Road with a firearm.
RCMP allege the suspect fled, stole a vehicle and “entered a nearby residence,” where officers set up a containment area.
Justason said he ran to a neighbour’s house and from there, watched in horror as the suspect set everything ablaze.
“We have security cameras in the house, so we saw him walking around inside the house on the security cameras, and he grabbed a can of gasoline from the second garage (…) brought it inside of the house, and we could see him on the cameras pouring the gasoline on the floors, throwing it on the walls and everything,” said Justason.
“Eventually he made it up to this room here, shattered the glass window and had grabbed a lighter from our kitchen, and he lit the can of gasoline on fire and threw it from the window here onto my car.”
The suspect was also exchanging gunfire with police, and Justason believes the suspect was shooting from the upstairs bathroom.
“He was firing shots at the place and we just heard gunshots and was hoping, eventually, that one of them would be the last one to be over, but it took a little longer for that to happen,” he said.
“The car exploded, so we heard that, saw the big puff of black smoke come over the sky and just heard gunshots over and over again.”
Justason said the whole ordeal lasted more than two hours.
“During the response, a member discharged their firearm at the man, and (the suspect) was pronounced dead on scene,” RCMP said in a news release.
New Brunswick RCMP have referred the incident to the Serious Incident Response Team for an independent investigation into the police-involved shooting.
Justason said he’s thankful for the police officers and firefighters who responded and resolved the situation.
Right now, much of his family’s belongings are now destroyed or inaccessible because it’s evidence as part of a crime scene.
Justason said the events of Saturday have left him shaken and grieving his childhood home of 23 years.
“Your home is where you’re meant to feel like you’re safe from the horrors of the outside world, and something like this kind of destroys that whole feeling of safety,” he said.
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