Edmonton
Three dead, fourth injured after early-morning shooting at University of Alberta
QMI Agency
First posted: Friday, June 15, 2012 07:07 AM EDT | Updated: Friday, June 15, 2012 08:50 AM EDT
Edmonton Police Service officers responded to a multiple shooting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Friday, June 15, 2012. IAN KUCERAK/QMI AGENCY
EDMONTON - Three people are dead and a fourth is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after an early-morning shooting involving an armoured car at the University of Alberta.
Police say they were called to Hub Mall, a combined shopping mall and student residence on the eastern part of the university's north campus, just after midnight for reports of shots fired. When officers arrived, they found three people dead and a fourth in critical condition, "the result of an apparent robbery at one of the financial institutions in the mall," Edmonton police spokesman Scott Pattison said Friday morning.
The suspect in the case remains at large.
The deceased are believed to be two men and a woman who were employees of an armoured car company. Local media report they worked for security company G4S.
Students at the University of Alberta took to Twitter to express their shock and sorrow at Friday morning's shooting.
One Twitter user, who tweets under the handle @_sapphira_, said she and a friend found the victims.
"Tonight, a friend and I discovered 3 shot security guards. Two were dead, one was screaming for us to help him," she tweeted.
The university said in a statement Friday morning that it is working with police.
"The university is saddened about those who lost their lives last night and we extend our condolences to their loved ones," the statement said. "The safety and security of our students is our first priority and our campus protective services are working closely with police."
Hub Mall will remain closed until 7 p.m. but the rest of the university is operating as normally scheduled, the university said. Counsellors are available for students who live in the residence at Hub Mall and exams are going ahead as scheduled.
Three dead, fourth injured after early-morning shooting at University of Alberta | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
Person of interest now murder suspect in armoured car shootings
06/15/2012 | The Canadian Press
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Travis Brandon Baumgartner Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 21, is shown in an undated file photo. HANDOUT/Edmonton Police Service
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University of Alberta shooting Police at the scene of a fatal shooting at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, June 15, 2012. CITYNEWS
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Police say a man they considered a person of interest in the fatal shooting of three armoured car guards at the University of Alberta is now a murder suspect.
Supt. Bob Hassel says warrants have been issued for the arrest of Travis Brandon Baumgartner for first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Hassel says police have -- quote -- "reasonable and probable grounds" to believe Baumgartner is responsible for the shootings.
Police had already said Baumgartner was on a crew from G4S Security that was restocking a bank machine at the university's HUB Mall overnight.
Police say Baumgartner owns a dark blue Ford F150 pickup truck with licence plate number ZRE 724.
Police Chief Rod Knecht delivered a statement to the media at police headquarters about what he said was a "horrific act of violence."
“To the families of those involved, and to the co-workers of these employees from G4S, all of us here at the Edmonton Police Service, and all the citizens of Edmonton, share your feelings of shock and disbelief,” Knecht said.
“Our thoughts are with you at this difficult time. Victim Services employees have been assigned to work with each one of the families involved, and senior executives from G4S will be arriving in Edmonton shortly to meet with their employees here."
The shooting also left one guard in critical condition.
One bystander photo of the scene posted to Facebook showed three people from G4S lying in front of a TD 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.
"It's devastating," said G4S spokeswoman Robin Steinberg, who confirmed the deaths and injuries. Names were not 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 5 1/2 years and to see something like this is beyond tragic. It just hits you to the core."
Steinberg confirmed the guards were armed, but would say little else about what is believed to have happened.
"I have no details," she said.
"It is under police investigation and we are doing everything we can obviously to co-operate with the police and hopefully they can apprehend this person, or people. I am not even sure how many are involved."
The robbery occurred around 12:30 a.m. at HUB Mall, a long, thin rectangular block of shops, eateries and student apartments on the east end of campus, which sits on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River and across from Edmonton's downtown skyscrapers.
The mall is built up over an access road. The third fatality was found on the road, underneath the super-structure and below the shooting scene.
Student residents, who live in apartments above the stores, reported hearing shots. Police and tactical units swarmed the campus and found the bodies by the machine at the north end of the mall, which links up to a number of surrounding buildings by covered passageways.
Ian Breitzke said he saw police pulling out bodies. The 21-year-old accounting student said he was watching TV in his residence room and heard a man in a room 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.
"Another couple of moments after that (they) pulled the man who was still alive out of the room."
About 560 students are living in residence at the mall at this time of year.
The scene had a puzzling twist. While one G4S vehicle was located at the scene, a G4S armoured truck was found some distance away in an east Edmonton industrial park near the G4S offices.
The truck had been left idling, parked at an angle at the side of the road. Police had the area around the truck blocked off Friday and were investigating.
G4S is an international security company with more than 630,000 employees. It has a specialized cash-management arm that delivers pay packets to fill ATMs.
The university was put in lockdown after the shooting. Any students leaving their rooms in the residence were being told they could not return until 7 p.m.
The university confirmed that it did not send out an emergency alert to students on its internal website system when the shooting happened. Instead, police went door to door in the residence telling people to stay inside.
Police spokesman Scott Pattison did confirm no students were involved in the shooting.
The school offered a statement about the shooting on its website.
"The university is saddened about those who lost their lives last night and we extend our condolences to their loved ones," the statement said.
"The safety and security of our students and staff is our first priority and our campus protective services are working closely with Edmonton police."
Grief counsellors were made available for students living at the HUB residence, and students too traumatized to write exams were being allowed to defer them.
The rest of the university was operating as normal and scheduled exams were going ahead.
It was the second robbery of a G4S armoured vehicle in Edmonton in recent months. Last December, guards making a mid-afternoon pickup outside a casino were attacked and pepper-sprayed by two masked men. The pair fled in a Jeep with an undisclosed amount of money.
Person of interest now murder suspect in armoured car shootings - CityNews