Man wanted in three Canada killings arrested at U.S. border

By Laura L. Myers

SEATTLE (Reuters) - U.S. border agents in Washington state on Saturday arrested a Canadian fugitive suspected of shooting to death three fellow security guards and wounding a fourth in a bloody armored-car heist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on Friday.

Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 21, an employee of G4S Cash Solutions (Canada) Ltd, which operated the armored car, was taken into custody while trying to cross into the United States in his pickup truck at the port of entry in Lynden, Washington, Edmonton police said.

Lynden is about 105 miles (160 km) north of Seattle.

The arrest of Baumgartner, wanted on Canada-wide warrants charging him with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, capped a 36-hour manhunt, police said.

"We understand it came to a peaceful resolution with customs and border patrol agents right there," Scott Pattison, a spokesman for the Edmonton police, told Reuters.

Although Baumgartner had been considered armed and dangerous while on the run, Pattison said he did not know whether a firearm was found in the suspect's possession when he was arrested.

But authorities did find an undisclosed sum of money in his truck at the border, Pattison said, adding that he expected Baumgartner to be returned to Edmonton to face charges on Saturday night or Sunday morning. He said no extradition proceedings were necessary since Baumgartner was caught at the border.

Baumgartner is accused of shooting three fellow security officers while they were making a delivery early on Friday to an automatic-teller machine at a shopping mall and student residence on the Edmonton campus, then shooting a fourth guard outside the mall next to a G4S van before making his getaway in the G4S armored car, Pattison said.

Three of the guards who were shot - two men and a woman - were killed, and a fourth was critically wounded, Pattison said.

Police later found the stolen armored car parked near the G4S company offices, with the lights on and the engine running. Pattison said he could not say what might have been taken from the truck.

The Ford pickup Baumgartner was trying to drive through the border crossing was carrying the Alberta license plates from his mother's vehicle, Pattison said.

(Reporting by Laura Myers in Seattle; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Peter Cooney)