Police have issued details of a person of interest in the shooting of three security guards at HUB mall at the University of Alberta.

Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 22, an employee of G4S, and is believed to be one of several armoured company employees that attended the U of A around midnight Friday to make a delivery.

Baumgartner is the owner of a dark blue Ford F-150 pick up truck with an Alberta Licence plate ZRE 724.

Police say they are not sure of his involvement in the shooting so are calling him a person of interest.

“We are dealing

today with can only be described as a horrific act of violence,” says Edmonton

Police Chief, Rod Knecht in a news conference Friday at 11am.

Story continues below advertisement





“To the many

students at the University of Alberta, especially those currently living in the

HUB mall, in close proximity to the crime scene, know that your residence and

your university is a safe place to live and study, this was not a random

attack.”

University Provost and

Vice President at the University of Alberta, Carl Amrhein also spoke at the news conference.

“I speak for the

entire University community in saying that we are shocked that something like

this has happened in our community. Our first priority remains ensuring the

safety of our students, providing support for everyone in the University

community that has been touched by this tragedy. The safety of our faculty,

staff and students remains our first priority”

A massive manhunt has been launched for Baumgartner, of Sherwood Park, the fifth of five employees of G4S Cash Solutions

Canada who were making a delivery at ATMs late Thursday. He’s believed

to be driving a dark-blue Ford F-150 truck, but anyone who sees Baumgartner is urged to immediately call

police rather than approach him.

Tactical units and police dog

teams searched backyards in a Sherwood Park neighbourhood where

Baumgartner’s family is believed to live.

Story continues below advertisement

A resident on a nearby

street said police had been there since 10 a.m. Portions of the road

remained blocked off just afternoon noon.

According to “Mush,” one of his Facebook friends, Baumgartner is “a

pretty friendly guy.” The two attended Bev Facey High School together in

Sherwood Park.

“I shared some laughs with him,” Mush said Friday. “I wasn’t really suspecting he’d do something like that.”

Mush

was one grade ahead of Baumgartner, who graduated in 2009. The two were

in a welding class together. “He seemed a little on the weird side, but

other than that a pretty decent guy.”

In Baumgartner’s profile on the dating site Plenty of Fish, he describes

himself as a great guy who works as an armoured guard, has a pet cat and

enjoys physics, biology, “decent books” and going to the firing range.

In a brief biography, he writes: “I intend to become a CEO of a major

corporation and use my power to help everyone I can. I am a people

person I love talking, I’m easy to get to know and I’m very laid-back.”

Kerry Williamson, a senior

media relations adviser with Alberta Health Services, said one person

was transported to nearby University of Alberta Hospital in critical

condition – “as bad as it gets.”

Story continues below advertisement

The victims’ identities are not being released pending notification of next of kin.

At 6:30 a.m., a white G4S van remained parked on the north side of

HUB.

Nearly a half-dozen forensic markers were laid out in the area.

Police

also remain at an industrial area in east Edmonton, where a blue G4S

truck is parked crookedly in the road, idling with its lights on and

partially blocking the driveway of Local 110 of the International

Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers. The entire

block at 47th Street and 93rd Avenue – less than a block from a G4S

compound where several armoured trucks are parked beside a plain,

unmarked building – is roped off with yellow police tape and guarded by

police, who say forensics officers will be processing the scene.

Story continues below advertisement

The

compound is surrounded by high chain-link fencing topped with barbed

wire, an electronic gate and numerous security cameras.

A small

number of grim-looking police officers came and went from the compound,

but have not spoken to media, except to ask them to move away.

A

uniformed employee at the G4S Edmonton compound declined to comment, but

Steinberg said earlier she can’t recall a comparable situation.

“This

is just horrific. Everybody is in shock and quite devastated.

Everybody’s thoughts are with the victims’ families and all of our

employees in Edmonton because it’s a pretty tight-knit group.”

Steinberg said all employees are being offered counselling.

Armed

robberies or attempts such as this “are quite rare, certainly in

Canada,” she said. “I wouldn’t even venture to guess what the stats are

around the world. In Canada, we have armed guards; in some of the other

countries in Europe, the guards are unarmed. All our employees are fully

licensed to carry firearms. They all go through vigorous training.”

Story continues below advertisement

In

December 2011, a G4S armoured vehicle was robbed outside the front

doors of Century Casino in northeast Edmonton, where an employee was

pepper-sprayed and attacked. G4S guards were at the casino to collect a

package, conducting what had been described as a routine delivery.

Steinberg

said she does not know how many employees are in Edmonton and couldn’t

comment on what specific duties the victims might have been doing before

this shooting.

The parent company, U.K.-based G4S plc., bills

itself as the second-largest private employer in the world after

Walmart, with more than 650,000 staff in 110 countries and 12,000 in

Canada. It described the company in a promotional article published in

January in the Canadian Business Journal as “the world leader in

offering truly turnkey, integrated solutions to worldwide security

challenges.”

The company launched its Canadian operations in 2000

as Securicor by buying cash service providers. It’s now called G4S

Secure Solutions, which is headquartered in Mississauga, Ont.; Cash

Solutions Canada is a subsidiary.

The company says on its website

that among its operations, it transports cash to service thousands of

customers. “ATMs play a major role in satisfying consumer demand for

round-the-clock access to banking services, and G4S helps by maximizing

the availability of ATMs and managing their cash levels.”

Story continues below advertisement

Brian Robertson, a Toronto-based security training consultant, called the shooting extraordinary.

“It’s

not at all common for shots to end up being fired,” Robertson said.

“Even in the United States, the number of incidents where you have

multiple armoured car guards being shot would be an extraordinary

circumstance.”

Robertson is a former director of the Justice

Institute of B.C.’s private security program, which provided training

for all armoured car guards. In that province, armoured car guards and

security guards are regulated under provincial legislation. In Alberta,

Robertson says the only regulatory scheme is federal.

“In terms of

private enterprise, under the regulations of the federal Firearms Act

there is a very small, narrow list of occupations you can be in where

you’ll be able to get authorization to carry a restricted firearm,” he

said. Armoured car guards are on that list, so “they’re licensed

differently, trained differently and tasked differently” from other

security personnel.

“If an individual is going to be an armoured

car guard with a company like G4S, they’ll have to apply to the federal

firearms officer in that jurisdiction to get a document called an

authorization to carry a restricted firearm.” That requires a training

course on firearm use and the use of force.

Story continues below advertisement

Robertson said the

length of training for employees varies, but typically runs three to

five days. “That training would involve competency on how to actually

use the firearm and also involves training on the law with respect to

firearms and the use of force.”

Employees are taught that guns are

only to be used to “protect your life and the lives of others,” not to

protect the bag of money, Robertson said.

“They are only ever to

use the firearm in circumstances where they have reasonable grounds to

believe it is necessary to use the firearm in order to protect their

life or the life of another person. Armoured car guards are trained not

to use the firearm to stop the robbery from being committed or to stop

the bad guys from getting away.”

Robertson said the number of

people working on an armoured car crew varies, ” but typically there’s

always someone in the truck and typically whoever is carrying the money

or servicing the ATM is accompanied by someone. In essence, they have

their back watched by another officer who’s out of the truck.”