EDMONTON — His Facebook page talked about introducing a little anarchy like the Joker in the movie Dark Knight.
It mentioned “popping people off” just to make the six o’clock news.
Suspected in the bloody armoured car heist that left three of his guard colleagues dead, police called him armed and extremely dangerous. They warned the public not to approach him.
But in the end, authorities say, Travis Brandon Baumgartner drove right into his arrest by trying to cross the United States border with a bag full of cash.
And he went quietly, without a fight.
“Quite frankly, I am very happy with the way that it ended — that it ended peacefully,” Edmonton police Supt. Bob Hassel told the media Sunday.
“We have been in contact with all of the families involved including Sandy Baumgartner, who is the mother of Travis, and everybody is relieved that he is now in custody.”
Baumgartner, 21, had been on the run since the early Friday when police issued warrants for his arrest on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
Baumgartner was a security guard for the armoured car company G4S. Police say he was on an overnight crew of five that was reloading an ATM at a University of Alberta mall and residence. Shots rang out and four of the guards went down.
Eddie Rejano, 39, Michelle Shegelski, 26, and Brian Ilesic, 35, all died. Matthew Schuman survived and remained in critical condition in hospital Sunday.
An armoured car was found halfway across the city. It was left running with its lights on.
Police identified Baumgartner as a suspect early.
They went public and alerted other agencies. They released pictures of his truck and revealed it had the licence plate from his mother’s car on it.
His mother made a plea for her son to surrender.
Baumgartner tried to get into Washington State Saturday afternoon at a border crossing just north of Lynden, Wash., near Abbotsford, B.C.
Police say he was driving the same dark blue pickup truck investigators had been looking for, the same Alberta licence plate belonging to his mother on the back.
He had no passport, just a drivers licence that police had flagged in their computers.
They say there was a backpack with $330,000 in the truck.
When he pulled up to the crossing, the U.S. system spit out a warning.
Witnesses say the arrest was at gunpoint, but it went without incident.
Baumgartner now enters the Canadian legal system.
Hassel said he is being held at the RCMP detachment in Langley, B.C. and is expected to be transferred back to Edmonton some time in the next week where formal charges will be laid.