Five Suspects Arrested After Bear Spray Smash-and-Grab at Oshawa Jeweller

Bear spray clouded the air inside Bellagio Jewellers II at Oshawa Centre on Sunday afternoon when four masked suspects smashed display cases and fled, triggering a response that ended with shoppers physically tackling one suspect to the floor and a K-9 unit running down the rest in the parking lot. By evening, five people were in custody.

The robbery began at approximately 3:45 p.m. on March 29 at the store inside the mall at 419 King Street West. Police say the group used hard objects to shatter display cases while deploying bear spray to push back bystanders and staff. One store employee was treated at the scene for bear spray exposure; fire crews were brought in to ventilate the store. Durham Regional Police described it as a "dynamic situation," with the mall packed full of weekend shoppers when it erupted.

What separated this incident from most was what shoppers did next. Mall security and civilians physically intervened, with video circulating widely showing a bystander holding a suspect in a chokehold inside the mall corridor. Two of the four in-store suspects were taken down on site. The remaining two fled in a getaway vehicle driven by a fifth suspect, but that car was involved in a minor collision at Stevenson Road North and King Street West. Police dogs from Durham Regional Police's Central East Division tracked the remaining suspects down after they fled the crash on foot.

Durham Regional Police named three adult suspects: Romario Abraham, 18, of Mississauga; Coulton Peters-McComb, 22, of Barrie; and Ryan MacPhail, 40, of no fixed address. Two youths, aged 15 and 17, both from the Greater Toronto Area, face the same charges but cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. All five are charged with robbery, disguise with intent, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. MacPhail, who was already on weapons prohibition conditions at the time of his arrest, faces two additional counts of failing to comply with probation.

Despite the successful civilian takedown captured on video, Durham police Const. Nicholas Gluckstein cautioned against anyone following that example. "What occurred is people that were shopping saw this happen and took it upon themselves to intervene, something that we obviously do not advise," Gluckstein said. "Safety and keeping yourself out of harm are paramount to us." The protocol police recommend in a smash-and-grab situation: move away from the spray, call 911 immediately, and hold onto every detail available, whether a suspect's clothing, a partial licence plate, or a direction of travel.

The Oshawa Centre has become one of Ontario's most persistently targeted retail locations. Paris Jewellers at the same mall has been robbed six times in under two years; a prior incident at another mall jewellery store saw suspects arrive with hammers and a pickaxe. The pattern reflects a province-wide crisis. Canadian Jeweller Magazine reported in June 2025 that jewellery store robberies had surged 250% year-over-year across Canada, with the bulk of Ontario incidents concentrated along the Windsor-Ottawa corridor, according to Jewellers Vigilance Canada. Peel Region recorded 37 robberies in 2024, triple the prior year, while Toronto police documented a 105% spike compared to 2023. Gold jewellery is the consistent target: it is portable, liquid, and nearly impossible to trace once melted or moved through informal markets.

Waterloo Regional Police Chief Mark Crowell called the provincial trend "concerning due to the level of danger the individuals are putting shoppers and employees in." With insurers already rewriting coverage rules and security standards tightening at mall jewellery counters across Ontario, the industry is racing to respond. At Oshawa Centre, that response came from the shoppers themselves, on a Sunday afternoon, before police even arrived.