EDMONTON - It’s a grim day at the University of Alberta. Three people were shot and killed just after midnight. A fourth person is in hospital in critical condition.
Robin Steinberg, Communications for G4S armoured car and security company confirms all four people involved in the shooting are employees of G4S. Steinberg says two men and one woman were fatally shot, and one man is in hospital in critical condition.
G4S released the following statement late Friday morning:
"We can confirm that three G4S crew members have been killed and a fourth is in a critical condition in hospital following a shooting in the HUB Mall at the University of Alberta. We are shocked and horrified by the incident and would like to express our heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families and to all of our employees in Edmonton. We are doing everything we can to assist the Edmonton Police with their investigation and would like to thank them for their hard work and dedication. The investigation is in its preliminary stages and the police will release further details as they become available."
Ian Breitzke describes the scene as he witnessed it.
“Within about 30 sec or a minute I heard a passenger car drive up pretty recklessly and kind of looked out to see if I could see kind of what happened or what it was, but didn't really see anything. Then, within probably maybe 30 seconds or something, if that, I heard a pretty loud bang from inside the mall.”
“Within about another maybe 10-15 seconds I heard two pretty loud bangs from what sounded like outside the mall and then I heard a man moaning or groaning and screaming. I kind of knew at that point that a couple gun shots had been fired and kind of got a little nervous.”
“3 or 4 seconds later, there were 4 or 5 more shots fired and the man continued to groan and scream in pain and within probably 30 seconds of that I heard the person get back into the vehicle and speed off pretty quickly… I heard the man continue to groan and scream and he kept yelling ‘hurry, hurry’. There were a couple people from Safe-walk on the campus at the University - they'd noticed the man was screaming inside.”
“Then when the police came in about 10 minutes, they ended up busting down the door and pulling out all the … bodies that were in there.”
“That's the first time I've ever seen a dead body...in real life … so it was obviously pretty shocking.”
“I was studying in one of the halls there and I heard pop, pop, pop - about 8 of them,” recalls Raved Seebreath.
“There was just a few of us - we just heard it - I didn't see anything - about 5 minutes later, then there was a commotion.”
Dozens of police vehicles were quickly on scene, but the shooter remains at large. However, police are questioning several witnesses at Headquarters and on the scene.
There are reports the shooter was involved in a robbery attempt. An armoured truck was later abandoned in South Edmonton.
Witnesses have said the victims may have been security guards, but this has not been confirmed by police.
People were using social media to get and spread information during and after the terrifying event.
A Global Edmonton viewer tweeted “hi, I am in the basement of HUB and there is a shooter upstairs. Can you please tell me what is going on?”
Another young woman tweeted “Tonight, a friend and I discovered 3 shot security guards. Two were dead, one was screaming for us to help him. Worst night ever. #ualberta”
So far, police haven’t revealed the circumstances surrounding the shooting or the identities of the victims.
"We have 3 deceased people here and obviously it's a major crime scene and a lot of families' lives will be changed forever,” says Scott Pattison with the Edmonton Police Service.
The shooting happened in HUB Mall, a residence, and shopping centre for U of A students. It’s on lockdown, but so far the University has not been evacuated.
Witnesses are understandably still shaken.
"I was just panicking, everyone was panicking - in Cameron library - I mean, anything could have happened,” says one witness.
Police are still on scene, and an entire side of the building has been blocked off. EPS believe the investigation will continue throughout the day.
With files from Vassy Kapelos and Erin Chalmers
Here are some photos from the crime scene inside HUB Mall, courtesy: Jonathan Fang:
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