

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Police have released an updated composite sketch that shows what one of the suspects in the 1980 murder of a Brink’s guard may look like today.

Larry Roberts, 29, and a colleague were delivering a substantial amount of money to a TD Bank at the Agincourt Mall on the afternoon of April 24, 1980 when three assailants, two of them armed with handguns and the third armed with an automatic rifle, opened fire on them inside the entrance to the plaza.

According to police, Roberts was shot in the chest at “close-range” by one suspect while his colleague was shot by another suspect.

The suspects then grabbed the money that the pair were delivering and ran through a nearby library before exiting a rear door and getting into a light-green car. As the suspects ran through the plaza and the library, one of them fired shots into the ceiling in an attempt to keep bystanders at a comfortable distance.

Both were subsequently rushed to hospital. But Roberts, a married father-of-one, succumbed to his injury a short time later. His injured colleague survived and recovered from his injury, but has since passed away.

At the time of the shooting, Brink’s guards were not armed and therefore Roberts and his colleague would not have been able to return fire.

“Investigators believe that with the passage of time someone may feel remorse and may want to come forward with information that they have been keeping to themselves for the past 35 years,” Det. Mary Vruna told reporters on Friday. “There isn’t a statute of limitations on the offence of murder. Families may have lost their loved ones but they haven’t been forgotten.”

According to Vruna, police have developed DNA profiles of the suspects but have so far been unsuccessful in coming up with any matches.

Police are also investigating the possibility that there may have been a female accomplice involved after investigators discovered that a woman’s DNA was found on some evidence.

Meanwhile, as part of the continuing investigation into the 35-year-old crime, Vruna said police are “looking at individuals previously arrested for similar offences” and following up on an old lead suggesting that the suspects had ties to Saskatchewan and Quebec.

Police have also increased the reward for information leading to an arrest from $25,000 to $50,000.

“I believe that the suspects in this investigation were sophisticated and knew what they were doing. It had to be planned out given the fact that they were there at the time of the delivery,” Vruna said. “We believe the persons responsible have done this type of robbery and murder before and since.”

Though there is only a composite sketch available for one of the suspects, police released descriptions of those involved when the crime was first committed in 1980.

The descriptions are as follows:

1. The first man was described as white, between five-foot-six and five-foot-seven, with a full face. He was believed to be in his early to mid-forties with a stocky built, weighing between 150 and 160 pounds. He had dark, heavy eyebrows, dark medium-length hair which police said may have been a wig. He had a dark, ruddy complexion and was clean shaven with a dark moustache that had traces of grey in it. He wore heavy, dark-rimmed sun glasses that were rectangular to square in shape. He was wearing a dark-coloured fedora with a narrow brim and light-coloured band that appeared too small for his head. He was also wearing a three-quarter length beige trenchcoat to just below the knee with a wide belt and neatly dressed with a shirt and tie and coloured dress shoes. He was sporting a short, automatic weapon.

2. The second suspect is also a white man with a darker complexion and a bit taller, standing between five-foot-10 and six feet. He was believed to be in his late 20s at the time. He was described as having a tapered face with a medium build, weighing about 160 pounds. He had black bushy hair that was unkempt and extended below his ears. He was clean-shaven with a dark bushy moustache that was the same texture as his hair and that extended to the corners of his mouth. He was wearing tinted eye glasses and a dark-coloured flat English-style peak cap. He was wearing dark-coloured clothing and was also armed with a handgun.

3. The third suspect is also a white man who was in his late twenties or early thirties at the time the crime was committed. He was between five-foot-11 and six feet, weighed about 189 pounds and had a dark complexion. He had dark brown to black hair that he wore combed straight down at the sides so that it covered part of his ears. He sported a moustache that was medium in thickness to the corners of his mouth. He had about two week’s growth of beard. At the time he was wearing olive green coveralls that were similar to mechanic’s overalls and sunglasses with a dark lense. He too was wearing a flat top greyish English-type peak cap with gloves. He too was armed with a handgun.

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