Police release details of person of interest in Edmonton shooting

Police have issued details of a person of interest in the shooting of three security guards at HUB mall at the University of Alberta.

Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 22, an employee of G4S, and is believed to be one of several armoured company employees that attended the U of A around midnight Friday to make a delivery.

Baumgartner is the owner of a dark blue Ford F-150 pick up truck with an Alberta Licence plate ZRE 724.

Police say they are not sure of his involvement in the shooting so are calling him a person of interest.

“We are dealing today with can only be described as a horrific act of violence,” says Edmonton Police Chief, Rod Knecht in a news conference Friday at 11am.

“To the many students at the University of Alberta, especially those currently living in the HUB mall, in close proximity to the crime scene, know that your residence and your university is a safe place to live and study, this was not a random attack.”

University Provost and Vice President at the University of Alberta, Carl Amrhein also spoke at the news conference.

“I speak for the entire University community in saying that we are shocked that something like this has happened in our community. Our first priority remains ensuring the safety of our students, providing support for everyone in the University community that has been touched by this tragedy. The safety of our faculty, staff and students remains our first priority”

A massive manhunt has been launched for Baumgartner, of Sherwood Park, the fifth of five employees of G4S Cash Solutions Canada who were making a delivery at ATMs late Thursday. He’s believed to be driving a dark-blue Ford F-150 truck, but anyone who sees Baumgartner is urged to immediately call police rather than approach him.

Tactical units and police dog teams searched backyards in a Sherwood Park neighbourhood where Baumgartner’s family is believed to live.

A resident on a nearby street said police had been there since 10 a.m. Portions of the road remained blocked off just afternoon noon.

According to “Mush,” one of his Facebook friends, Baumgartner is “a pretty friendly guy.” The two attended Bev Facey High School together in Sherwood Park.

“I shared some laughs with him,” Mush said Friday. “I wasn’t really suspecting he’d do something like that.”

Mush was one grade ahead of Baumgartner, who graduated in 2009. The two were in a welding class together. “He seemed a little on the weird side, but other than that a pretty decent guy.”

In Baumgartner's profile on the dating site Plenty of Fish, he describes himself as a great guy who works as an armoured guard, has a pet cat and enjoys physics, biology, “decent books” and going to the firing range. In a brief biography, he writes: “I intend to become a CEO of a major corporation and use my power to help everyone I can. I am a people person I love talking, I’m easy to get to know and I’m very laid-back.”

Kerry Williamson, a senior media relations adviser with Alberta Health Services, said one person was transported to nearby University of Alberta Hospital in critical condition — “as bad as it gets.”

The victims’ identities are not being released pending notification of next of kin.

At 6:30 a.m., a white G4S van remained parked on the north side of HUB. Nearly a half-dozen forensic markers were laid out in the area.

Police also remain at an industrial area in east Edmonton, where a blue G4S truck is parked crookedly in the road, idling with its lights on and partially blocking the driveway of Local 110 of the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers. The entire block at 47th Street and 93rd Avenue — less than a block from a G4S compound where several armoured trucks are parked beside a plain, unmarked building — is roped off with yellow police tape and guarded by police, who say forensics officers will be processing the scene.

The compound is surrounded by high chain-link fencing topped with barbed wire, an electronic gate and numerous security cameras.

A small number of grim-looking police officers came and went from the compound, but have not spoken to media, except to ask them to move away.

A uniformed employee at the G4S Edmonton compound declined to comment, but Steinberg said earlier she can’t recall a comparable situation.

“This is just horrific. Everybody is in shock and quite devastated. Everybody’s thoughts are with the victims’ families and all of our employees in Edmonton because it’s a pretty tight-knit group.”

Steinberg said all employees are being offered counselling.

Armed robberies or attempts such as this “are quite rare, certainly in Canada,” she said. “I wouldn’t even venture to guess what the stats are around the world. In Canada, we have armed guards; in some of the other countries in Europe, the guards are unarmed. All our employees are fully licensed to carry firearms. They all go through vigorous training.”

In December 2011, a G4S armoured vehicle was robbed outside the front doors of Century Casino in northeast Edmonton, where an employee was pepper-sprayed and attacked. G4S guards were at the casino to collect a package, conducting what had been described as a routine delivery.

Steinberg said she does not know how many employees are in Edmonton and couldn’t comment on what specific duties the victims might have been doing before this shooting.

The parent company, U.K.-based G4S plc., bills itself as the second-largest private employer in the world after Walmart, with more than 650,000 staff in 110 countries and 12,000 in Canada. It described the company in a promotional article published in January in the Canadian Business Journal as “the world leader in offering truly turnkey, integrated solutions to worldwide security challenges.”

The company launched its Canadian operations in 2000 as Securicor by buying cash service providers. It’s now called G4S Secure Solutions, which is headquartered in Mississauga, Ont.; Cash Solutions Canada is a subsidiary.

The company says on its website that among its operations, it transports cash to service thousands of customers. “ATMs play a major role in satisfying consumer demand for round-the-clock access to banking services, and G4S helps by maximizing the availability of ATMs and managing their cash levels.”

Brian Robertson, a Toronto-based security training consultant, called the shooting extraordinary.

“It’s not at all common for shots to end up being fired,” Robertson said. “Even in the United States, the number of incidents where you have multiple armoured car guards being shot would be an extraordinary circumstance.”

Robertson is a former director of the Justice Institute of B.C.’s private security program, which provided training for all armoured car guards. In that province, armoured car guards and security guards are regulated under provincial legislation. In Alberta, Robertson says the only regulatory scheme is federal.

“In terms of private enterprise, under the regulations of the federal Firearms Act there is a very small, narrow list of occupations you can be in where you’ll be able to get authorization to carry a restricted firearm,” he said. Armoured car guards are on that list, so “they’re licensed differently, trained differently and tasked differently” from other security personnel.

“If an individual is going to be an armoured car guard with a company like G4S, they’ll have to apply to the federal firearms officer in that jurisdiction to get a document called an authorization to carry a restricted firearm.” That requires a training course on firearm use and the use of force.

Robertson said the length of training for employees varies, but typically runs three to five days. “That training would involve competency on how to actually use the firearm and also involves training on the law with respect to firearms and the use of force.”

Employees are taught that guns are only to be used to “protect your life and the lives of others,” not to protect the bag of money, Robertson said.

“They are only ever to use the firearm in circumstances where they have reasonable grounds to believe it is necessary to use the firearm in order to protect their life or the life of another person. Armoured car guards are trained not to use the firearm to stop the robbery from being committed or to stop the bad guys from getting away.”

Robertson said the number of people working on an armoured car crew varies, “ but typically there’s always someone in the truck and typically whoever is carrying the money or servicing the ATM is accompanied by someone. In essence, they have their back watched by another officer who’s out of the truck.”