Armoured car shooting suspect arrested with more than $300,000 in cash

EDMONTON – A Canada-wide manhunt is finally over, after the suspect wanted in a deadly armoured car heist at the University of Alberta was arrested Saturday night.

U.S. border guards arrested Travis Baumgartner, 21, as he tried to cross over from B.C. into the American town of Lynden.

It’s alleged Baumgartner was trying to cross into the States while driving his blue Ford F-150 pick-up truck, which is believed to be the same vehicle he left town in following Friday’s deadly shooting.

“We’re grateful to the border officials at Lynden, Washington, for their excellent work in arresting a man we believe was armed and extremely dangerous,” Edmonton police Insp. Bob Hassel said in a statement.

It’s believed there was approximately $330,000 in cash located in Baumgartner’s truck when he was arrested.

Employees at the nearby duty-free shop say they watched part of the arrest from their front window.
    
A employee who would only give her first name, Adrienne, said she saw two border patrol vehicles with lights flashing and officers outside with their guns drawn.
    
She said she didn’t hear any shots fired. Nobody in the store knew what it was about until a reporter called, she said.
    
“It’s pretty scary,” she said. “Luckily nothing here happened.”
    
Police have been looking for Baumgartner since early Friday when four guards with G4S Cash Solutions Canada were gunned down, three of them fatally.
    
Police have said Baumgartner was the fifth member of a crew re-loading bank machines at a university mall and residence where the shooting happened.
    
The 21-year-old is facing three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Hassel said officers hadn’t been able to account for Baumgartner’s work pistol or body armour and they assumed he has both with him. There was no immediate word on whether those items were found during the arrest.
    
Eddie Rejano, Michelle Shegelski and Brian Ilesic have been identified as the dead guards who died. Matthew Schuman was still listed in critical condition Saturday.
    
Hassel said at this point police are only looking for one suspect in the robbery, but noted the investigation is ongoing.
    
Baumgartner lives with his mother, Sandy Baumgartner, in Sherwood Park, a bedroom community just east of Edmonton. She has already released a statement pleading for her boy to turn himself in “to end this without further bloodshed.”
    
While police searched for Baumgartner Saturday, details continued to emerge about his colleagues.
    
Rejano, 39, aspired to be a police officer and was also a competitive target shooter who worked a second job as a gun-range officer at the Wild West Shooting Centre at West Edmonton Mall.
    
“He liked the aspects of protecting individuals and taking care of the community,” said Yanira Sale, a co-worker at the gun range.
    
She added that she can’t believe the father of two young boys is gone. She keeps thinking he is going to walk through the door to start work.
    
“It hasn’t really sunk in,” she said. “It’s pretty shocking and the manner in which it happened has affected us the most. It should never have happened.”
    
Shegelski was 26 and had recently married. Her husband, coincidentally, a student at the University of Alberta.
    
Brian Ilesic was 35 and had a 12-year-old daughter.
    
Working at G4S is Schuman’s second job. He is also a corporal in the military and works as an Air Force firefighter at the base in Edmonton.
    
Staff at the university reopened the HUB building Saturday where the shooting happened. A bouquet of flowers was placed next to the bank machine.

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