UP TO $1.9M TAKEN IN FATAL HEIST IN EDMONTON
As much as $1.9M missing after deadly incident
Early in their investigation of the June 15 Hub Mall armed robbery that left three security guards dead and a fourth critically wounded, police believed that up to $1.9 million had been taken from an armoured truck belonging to G4S Cash Solutions Canada.
“It is estimated that the missing Canadian currency from the truck is believed to be in the range of $600,000 to $1.9 million,” wrote Edmonton police homicide Det. Paul Gregory in materials to apply for a search warrant for Baumgartner’s Sherwood Park home.
The warrant, filed in Edmonton provincial court early on June 15, was unsealed Friday afternoon. The Edmonton Journal and the CBC fought a legal battle to make its contents public.
On June 16, when 21-year-old suspect Travis Brandon Baumgartner was captured at the U.S. border crossing near Lynden, Wash., he was carrying $330,000 in Canadian bills.
Baumgartner, a trainee security guard who worked at G4S alongside the robbery victims, is charged with three counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and four counts of robbery with a firearm.
The search warrant was for a home in Sherwood Park where Baumgartner lived with his mother Sandra.
Information in the warrant application shows that hours after the deadly robbery, Sandra Baumgartner found “a large bundle of cash” on her kitchen table.
Sandra, a bank employee, estimated the cash to total about $64,000, the search warrant says.
The night before the robbery, Sandra and her son had argued over rent money he owed her.
Before he left for his evening shift as an armoured truck guard, Baumgartner suggested to his mother he had a plan to pay her his rent.
“Travis told her not to worry, stating he wasn’t coming back home and that she would get her money,” states the search warrant. Baumgartner then left the home and his mother went to bed.
Sandra Baumgartner awoke to the news that three G4S guards had been killed and another wounded on the University of Alberta campus.
She found the money on the kitchen table and her son’s work boots near the front door. There was no sign of Travis. Armoured truck guards Michelle Shegelski, 26; Brian Ilesic, 35; and Eddie Rejano, 39, were shot to death while delivering cash to bank machines inside Hub Mall. A fourth guard, Matthew Schuman, was critically injured, but is recovering.
According to the search warrant, Baumgartner and Rejano were relatively new employees. Baumgartner had been employed by G4S for two months.
Police believe Baumgartner drove away from Hub Mall in the armoured truck before he switched to his own vehicle a short distance from G4S headquarters at 9373 47th St.
The search warrant materials do not contain investigative details for the days and weeks that followed.
It states that police were looking for any firearm that may have been used in the shootings; any ammunition, shell casing or other related evidence; any forensic evidence related to “the suspect(s) or victim(s)” including blood, hair, fibres, fingerprints or other bodily substances; any computer hardware and/or software that may help investigators determine “historic Internet research used to assist in the facilitation of the occurrence”; any other evidence or property belonging to G4S Canada, including Canadian currency; a G4S issued uniform; and black combat-style boots.
The guns of all the dead and injured were loaded and holstered when they were found, according to the search warrant materials. All five of the employees, including Baumgartner, had handguns with .38 calibre bullets, and matching shell casings were found at the scene. A “speed loader” used to re-load a gun much faster than by hand was also recovered at the scene.
All four victims were shot in the head. Rejano was found on the ground outside near a G4S vehicle and the other three were in a secure, locked room where the cash was placed into machines. Police had to use a battering ram and a pry bar to get through the door to three of the victims, according to the warrant.
Based on the position of the bodies and bullet holes in the ground, police believed the three deceased guards were in the process of loading the ATM with cash when they were killed.
“Had an unauthorized person(s) been in the room, the victims would not have begun stocking the ATM at that time,” the warrant reads.
The bank machine in the U of A Hub mall was the guard’s third stop on their route. They arrived shortly after midnight and had already been making cash deliveries for two hours. The first 911 call was made at 12:12 a.m.
In the very early stages of their investigation, police were initially unsure if Baumgartner, the only G4S employee unaccounted for, was a suspect or an abducted victim.
At 4 a.m., police officers were placed on a watch outside the Sherwood Park home. It is not known if the person who left the money on the kitchen table left the home before 4 a.m. or escaped police attention.
By the time the warrant was written, Gregory was identifying Baumgartner as the main suspect.
In the minutes after the shootings, Safewalk volunteer Ashley Moroz entered Hub Mall and heard a “thud,” the search warrant says.
She walked toward the TD Bank machine. She saw a person lying on the ground, bleeding.
She heard the victim say, “I’m not going to make it.”
Another witness who lived in Hub Mall told police he heard seven gunshots.
Contents of the search warrant have not been proven in court.
Baumgartner’s next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, but his lawyer is expected to attend on his behalf.