New surveillance video shows suspects involved in Mac's robbery
Dramatic surveillance footage posted on YouTube Tuesday showed two of the suspects involved in Monday's violent robbery of an Edmonton Mac's convenience store holding a rifle and pulling money out of the cash register.
Posted by the account Macs CrimeBusters, the video shows two masked men behind the counter. One man in a grey hoodie and a black jacket can be seen kneeling on the counter and pulling money from the register as another man with a black face mask, black jacket, white shoes and a long-barrelled gun watches before walking out of frame.
The video is time stamped Monday, Feb. 8 at about 12:30 a.m. The video was on the Mac's Crimebusters YouTube channel until about 1:30 p.m. when it was suddenly made private.
Sean Sportun, manager of security and loss prevention for Mac's Convenience Stores Canada, earlier confirmed the legitimacy of the video Tuesday. He said it was posted by the company in an effort to identify the individuals responsible for the violent armed robbery, in which one employee was seriously injured.
Edmonton police are still looking for three suspects after two masked men carrying guns entered the Mac's convenience store at 40th Street and Hermitage Road shortly after midnight. A third suspect, a female, was also involved, but is not seen on the video footage posted Tuesday.
The suspects fled with cash and some store items.
The employee suffered a head injury, Edmonton Police Service Staff Sgt. James Vanderland said, and was taken to hospital.
Employee expected to recover, storeowner says
The owner of the store, Paul Jaswal, told CBC News the store has been robbed a number of times since he's owned it.
He expects his employee to make a full recovery.
The violence comes less than two months after two Mac's clerks were killed in separate robberies.
Karanpal Bhangu, 35, and Ricky Cenabre, 41, were both working solo overnight shifts at separate stores on Dec. 18 when masked gunmen walked in and shot them, leaving with what police say were small amounts of cash.
The most recent attack on Monday is renewing a call for the Alberta government to protect late-night workers.
"Yet another attack on a Mac's store worker is just an indication of how urgent the need is and how we simply can't wait any longer for action to keep these workers safe," said Gil McGowan of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
In the past five years, 173 orders were issued by Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Act for issues related to working alone, OHS spokeswoman Christine Wronko said in an email. One was a stop work order, and the others were orders to produce or develop policies or to complete a hazard assessment for working alone.
One employer was prosecuted in a case related to working alone, Wronko added. The employer was fined $5,000, a $750 victim surcharge and $87,000 to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) to develop a hazard assessment education program for working alone.
In a written statement to CBC, Minister of Labour Christina Gray said she is working "on options to collaborate with businesses and employees" to better protect workers.
"We are also taking some immediate steps to improve safety, including getting OH&S staff into these workplaces to talk to workers and business owners and collect the front-line information we need to make smart, effective changes that work for both businesses and workers."
