Police are hunting for an armoured-car guard they describe as "armed and dangerous" after three fellow employees were shot to death and one wounded during a dramatic robbery at the University of Alberta.
Travis Baumgartner, 21, an employee of the security company G4S, was the focus of an all-out manhunt by Edmonton police, the RCMP and U.S. and Canadian customs officials Friday in the wake of the deaths.
Edmonton police Supt. Bob Hassel said Baumgartner faces three charges of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder.
"We now believe we have reasonable and probable grounds that this is the person who is responsible for this horrific and terrible crime," Hassel said Friday, urging the public to use extreme caution if they encounter him.
Police swarmed the campus shortly after midnight, when gunfire erupted in the Hub, a combination student residence and mall, home to about 500 students at this time of year.
Baumgartner, who joined the company in April, was one of five G4S guards making a delivery to an ATM machine in the campus complex while on a training run, according to a source with inside knowledge of the shooting.
Two were full-time guards, one was a trainer and two were trainees. All were wearing bulletproof vests, the source added, saying it appears the victims were all shot in the head.
Some students were witnesses to what Edmonton Police Service Chief Rod Knecht described as "not a random attack."
One student, Sapphira Nuttall, a volunteer for an anti-crime program at the university, posted on Twitter a brief but vivid description of what she encountered:
"Tonight, a friend and I discovered 3 shot security guards. Two were dead, one was screaming for us to help him. Worst night ever," Nuttall wrote.
One bystander photo of the scene posted to Facebook showed three people from G4S lying in front of a bank machine, emergency crews working over the bodies.
There were blood streaks on the concrete floor out from behind the machine to where the bodies were lying.
Accounting student Ian Breitzke, 21, said he saw police pulling out bodies. He said he was watching TV in his room and heard a man behind an ATM crying out in pain.
"When the police came in about 10 minutes, they ended up busting down the door (of the ATM room) and pulling out all the bodies that were in there," he said.
Names of the dead - two men and a woman - have not been officially released, but Henrietta Shegelski, of Lac du Bonnet, Man., confirmed her daughter-in-law, Michelle Shegelski, was among the victims.
The wounded man was identified as Matthew Schuman, a full-time corporal and Air Force firefighter stationed at CFB Edmonton. He worked with G4S as a second job.
A second G4S vehicle, an armoured car, was found hours later parked and idling on the side of the road near an east-end G4S compound. Police haven't said how, or if, that car was involved.
The truck had been left idling, parked at an angle at the side of the road.
All G4S trucks are equipped with biometrics so that only one of the guards could drive it, the source said. Trucks have an immobilizer and will automatically stop if they go off their planned routes.
"It's devastating," said G4S spokeswoman Robin Steinberg, who confirmed the deaths and injuries. Names were not immediately released.
"Our hearts go out to families of the victims and all of our employees at the Edmonton branch. I've been working for this organization for 51/2 years and to see something like this is beyond tragic. It just hits you to the core."
ATMs can hold up to $160,000 each. The source said the truck is believed to have been carrying millions in cash, although it's not known how much was stolen.
A large swath of the campus was cordoned off with yellow crime-scene tape Friday and one body was still visible from the sidewalk where media were camped out all day.
Inside a nearby building, hundreds of political scientists from across Canada were meeting for an annual conference.
The Hub was closed to students and residents all day Friday, while the university administration scrambled to defer exams and dispatch counsellors to students traumatized by the incident.
Steven Munz, a friend of Baumgartner's, said Baumgartner hoped eventually to become a police officer. "But he felt he really didn't have what it took," Munz said.
He said Baumgartner completed two weeks of training in Calgary before starting the night shift in Edmonton. "He said he enjoyed it more than any other job."
Munz said he was surprised police think Baumgartner could be involved, but had noticed his personality change in the last year.
"Over the last year I've kind of noticed him slowly changing as a person. It's almost more irrational the way he thinks. I didn't think he was capable of something like this, but who knows, right?"
In a profile on the dating website Plenty of Fish, Baumgartner describes himself as a "great guy" who is looking for love and has an athletic body.
"My ahmbitions (sic) in this world of ours is to better our world. I intend to become a CEO of a major corporation and use my power to help everyone I can."
With files from The Canadian Press and Star staff
Copyright 2012 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited
