Murder trial to start for U of A shooting suspect
Posted Sep 9, 2013 7:36 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A judge will soon hear the disturbing details of a shooting that left three security guards dead, and a fourth fighting for his life.
The three week trial of 22-year-old Travis Baumgartner will get underway Monday.
Baumgartner was the fifth guard in a G4S truck involved in a heist on June 15th, 2012.
Investigators believe he used his gun to shoot Michelle Shegelski, Eddie Rejano and Brian Ilesic in the head.
All three were killed.
YouTube video of the carnage later surfaced from one student, where first-responders could be heard breaking down a door to reach the fourth victim, Matthew Schuman.
He can be heard screaming in pain as the glass shatters around him.
At the time, Baumgartner was immediately called a person of interest.
Edmonton Police issued a Canada-wide warrant.
“This was not a random attack,” Chief Rod Knecht told the media later that day, as he tried to reassure those who live in the Hub Mall.
He described the scene as one of “unimaginable carnage” and said they were providing whatever help they could to the victims’ families.
According to investigators, Baumgartner was later found trying to cross the U.S. border near Vancouver with $330,000 in cash.
Court documents revealed the young man had a fight with his mother over rent money earlier that day.
She made a public statement, begging her son to turn himself in.
Baumgartner is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, one charge of attempted murder and four counts of robbery with a firearm.
The Chief Crown Prosecutor is taking the case himself and it will be heard by a judge and no jury.
