Guard Murders Colleagues for $330,000

Minutes after midnight Friday morning, a team of private security guards pulled up to a dark service road along the north edge of the University of Alberta campus, carrying cash to restock bank machines.

It was otherwise a routine stop for the company, known as G4S Cash Solutions, on a quiet Edmonton evening. Two trainees were among the team. But so too was another young employee – one who’d soon become the subject of a manhunt.

Travis Baumgartner is 21 years old, he had a job and the rest of his life ahead of him. Now, he is a murderer with 3 lives on what should have been his conscience, he seriously injured a fourth colleague, and he did all that for $330,000.

Travis was living with his mother in an Edmonton suburb, seemingly leading a normal life.

“I’m sorry that we had an argument last night, and had bad words between us, but I want you to come home and do the right thing. Let’s work this out together, she said. “Trav’, as your mother, I ask that you come forward now and take responsibility for your actions. Please Travis, I love you, and I’m pleading with you with all my heart, to end this without further bloodshed. As your mother, I promise to you now, that I will be there by your side to support you.”

Police tactical officers had surrounded the family’s Sherwood Park home earlier Friday, to no avail. A nearby home daycare was evacuated. “[I’m] terrified, horrified. I’m still shaking,” said Noelle MacLachlan, 29, who came to pick up her children, age 4 and 1. But Mr. Baumgartner remained at large – even changing his license plate, police announced Friday night.

G4S Cash Solutions is flying in their own internal security experts to find out what, if anything, went wrong when they hired Travis. There is always a danger that an employee might “crack”, and in most cases that ends in a more or less tidy break with the company in question, but how one should go about trying to “weed out” employees that could turn out to be dangerous is a much debated topic.

“In addition to the police investigation, we have flown out our own security experts as part of G4S internal investigation,” said Mr. Tallion. “This is standard practice for any major incident. We do all review aspects to determine if there’s lessons to be learned and if there is, we will implement these changes as we go forward.”

Mr. Tallion did not take questions about what issues internal auditors would address or what recommendations could result in light of the attack, which occurred while G4S workers were refilling bank machines just after midnight Friday morning during a stop on the main university campus.

However, the union that represents the G4S security guards, as well as others in the industry in Alberta, suggested that more in-depth psychological analysis might be necessary to help weed out potentially dangerous employees.

Richard Eichel, the Calgary-based secretary, treasurer and principal officer for Teamsters Local 362, which represents the G4S workers across the Prairies, said the union has been fielding calls from across the country about how the workplace can be made safer.

“Do you do more psychological testing?” he said. “How much and how far do you go? Who knows.”