Man admits to kidnapping in robbery
Accused pleads guilty to taking bank employee hostage in 2016 incident
A man has pleaded guilty to taking part in a dramatic 2016 bank robbery and hostage-taking in Etobicoke, but the identity and whereabouts of his accomplice remain a mystery.
Boris Rajkovic, 32, admitted in court Monday to kidnapping an employee of a TD Bank, forcing her and a co-worker to open the bank’s vault, taking the two women with him as he left the bank to prevent the police from firing at him, and firing his own weapon in the direction of police, before officers shot him.
He pled guilty to kidnapping while using a firearm, robbery with a firearm, uttering a death threat, discharging a firearm with intent to resist arrest, possession of a firearm with ammunition and unauthorized possession of a firearm. Rajkovic still faces14 charges, including impersonating a peace officer, disguise with intent to commit an offence and several weapons-related crimes. It is unclear what will happen with those outstanding charges.
Crown Attorney Michael Wilson laid out the sequence of events surrounding the robbery on Monday, as Rajkovic stood in the accused’s box wearing a loose, black button-up shirt and black pants, his brown hair pulled back into a bun. Rajkovic agreed that the majority of Wilson’s narrative was accurate.
A TD Bank employee had just gotten into her car before work, about 7 a.m. on Feb. 20, 2016, when a man wearing a police hat approached her and identified himself as an officer conducting an investigation in the area, Wilson said. Rajkovic got into the car while the woman spoke to the man pretending to be a police officer.
Rajkovic showed the woman a gun and ordered her to drive to the bank, saying he would kill her and her family if she didn’t co-operate.
The woman drove Rajkovic to the bank, at Kipling Ave. and the Queensway. They were followed by Rajkovic’s accomplice, who communicated with him using a two-way radio. The bank employee told Rajkovic that a co-worker was expecting her to call in. Rajkovic told the woman to call her co-worker and say she was bringing a “trainee” with her.
When they arrived at the bank, Rajkovic ordered the woman and her co-worker, at gunpoint, to open the vault and disarm the alarm. He took “a quantity of cash” from the vault but the bank’s “duress” alarm was activated and police were dispatched to the scene.
Rajkovic’s accomplice told him, over the two-way radio, that police were on their way. Seeing the police outside, Rajkovic took the two women with him as he tried to escape.
The Crown said Rajkovic held a gun to the head of one of the women, but Rajkovic said in court Monday that he disputes that part of the story.
Contrary to police statements about the incident, he was not using the women as a shield — he simply brought the women along because he thought officers would refrain from shooting at him if the women were near him, Rajkovic added. Rajkovic eventually let go of the women, who ran toward the police officers.
Rajkovic then pointed his gun in the direction of the police and fired. Five police officers fired back, hitting Rajkovic with at least one bullet.
He was placed under arrest, then taken to St. Michael’s Hospital for treatment of an abdominal wound.
Rajkovic’s accomplice escaped in a car. He is still at large. Authorities do not know who he is.
The Special Investigations Unit, Ontario’s police watchdog, reported that it was unclear whether Rajkovic or an officer fired first, but absolved the police of any wrongdoing in the incident. “It was clear that . . . the risk of serious bodily harm or death to the officers or civilians would have been substantially increased had the officers not returned fire,” SIU director Tony Loparco wrote in an investigation report.
Rajkovic is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 14 for sentencing.