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

Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 21, is seen in this mugshot posted on the Edmonton Police Service website on June 15, 2012, and obtained by Reuters on June 17, 2012.

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 without incident while trying to cross into the United States in his pickup truck at the port of entry in Lynden, Washington, authorities said.

Lynden is about 105 miles 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, according to Edmonton police.

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

The suspect, who was traveling alone, was carrying a backpack containing $334,000 in Canadian currency, said Mike Milne, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Seattle.

Although Baumgartner had been considered armed and dangerous while on the run, no weapon was found in his possession or in his vehicle, said Thomas Schreiber, a Customs and Border Protection official in Blaine, Washington.

Schreiber said Baumgartner, whom he described as "cooperative," was placed in a holding cell in Lynden to await transfer into Canadian custody Saturday night.

Pattison 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.

Baumgartner was known to have switched license plates from his mother's vehicle, and border officials recognized those plates as he tried to drive his Ford pickup through the crossing at Lynden, authorities said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Peter Cooney)