EDMONTON – It’s a day that changed the lives of many. June 15, 2012, four armoured guards were shot inside the University of Alberta’s HUB Mall. Three of them were killed.
“It was just a little bit after midnight,” recalls Ian Breitzke, who lived in the HUB university residence. “I was getting myself ready for bed – actually just about to close my bedroom window to go to bed – and kind of heard the first gunshot.”
“A few seconds later I heard multiple – what turned out to be – gunshots and then I was like ‘okay there’s definitely something happening outside’ and that’s when I heard one of the G4S staff.”
Breitzke remembers hearing someone screaming.
“The people that were in the mall were trying to help out, get the people out of the room behind the bank machine, but it wasn’t helping. There were people screaming.”
He says he heard the suspect vehicle speed away from the scene, and then first responders started to arrive.
“There were the paramedics, there were police, there was a SWAT team, there were dogs.”
Breitzke admits, at the time, he wanted to know what was going on, but soon, the reality of what had taken place became too much.
“The emergency responders pulled out the couple of staff that had been killed… and then it was kind of like ‘okay, I think that’s enough.”
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“You wanted to know, but you didn’t want to know,” he explains.
Twenty-six-year-old Michelle Shegelski, 35-year-old Brian Ilesic and 39-year-old Eddie Rejano died at the scene. The fourth guard, 25-year-old Matthew Schuman, was rushed to hospital suffering a gunshot to the head.
Miraculously, he survived.
“We have three deceased people here,” said Edmonton Police Service spokesperson Scott Pattison the day of the shooting. “Obviously it’s a major crime scene and a lot of families’ lives will be changed forever.”
A message placed at a memorial outside the G4S building June 18th read: “Brian, you are a hero. Enjoy heaven. Miss you.” It was signed “Mom & Dad & family.”
Ilesic left behind a 12-year-old daughter.
In a statement, Shegelski’s family said: “This tragic time in our lives has been tempered by the amount of caring we have been shown…. Our lives will forever be changed and so will the lives of the people she touched.”
Rejano left behind two young sons and his wife.
One year later
“People bring back memories, but it’s not something you really want to remember,” admits Breitzke.
“I’m pretty sure something like that is not going to happen again, but you’re reminded it of it when you walk by. I lived there. Every morning when I walked out I was walking by right where it happened…I come back here and I’m still reminded of it,” he says.
Police named 21-year-old Travis Baumgartner, a fifth guard on the G4S crew, as a suspect in the deadly shooting.
Less than 48 hours later, he was arrested in B.C. at the Canada-U.S. border. Baumgartner was taken into custody without incident, and police recovered a small backpack with more than $300,000 in it inside the truck.
According to a warrant, hundreds of thousands of dollars – if not millions – may still be missing.
Baumgartner was transported back to Edmonton and charged with three counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and four counts of robbery with a firearm.
Chief Crown Prosecutor Steven Bilodeau is handling the file.
“This one here really rocked the community,” he explained. “It rocked the whole nation. And this is one where I really want to make sure the community knows we will take this as seriously as possible.”
Bilodeau says EPS detectives have already built a compelling case.
Baumgartner’s trial date is set for September 9. It is expected to last three weeks.
University of Alberta
The horrific shooting on the university campus gave the U of A pause. Officials believe the attack could have happened anywhere, but, in the year since the attack, the university has seen reviews and changes it believes will make the campus even safer.
“As tragic as that incident was, we certainly learned some lessons from that to further improve the systems and procedures at the University of Alberta,” Philip Stack, with the university’s Risk Management Services, tells Global News.
He says the school already had comprehensive systems to respond to any kind of emergency.
“Previously, we had a policy we would use our notification if an individual’s life was at harm,” explains Stack.
“What we heard from the community was, regardless of whether their life was in immediate danger, they wanted to hear from us and so we’ve developed a different procedure for notifying the university community using notification systems.”
An alert – a new safety feature that was being tested prior to the June 15 shooting – will be able to warn thousands of students about anything from a weather emergency to a terrorist threat.
A digital screen lights up and an alarm sounds; notifying those in classrooms about the campus danger.
“It’s an internet-based system,” explains Jim Newman, superintendent of U of A Protective Services. “Each device is connected to an Ethernet cable controlled by a central server.”
Only a select few, including Newman, will have the power to send out the alert to 55 devices across 16 university buildings.
“In the event of an emergency, I or another designate can select all the devices, a group of devices, or actually pick an individual device, and send an emergency text message.”
“That system will activate an audible alert, a visual alert with blinking lights, and the units that are equipped with marquees will have scrolling messages across them.”
The alert, Newman explains, will include a message and give instructions to either stay in place or leave the campus, depending on the emergency.
“It’s extremely valuable. If you have a student population of over 40,000 students over a fall/winter term, to be able to connect with them is very important in the event of an emergency.”
In the aftermath of the shooting, the university was criticized for not sharing more information sooner.
The shooting was reported at 12:08 am. According to external report, Edmonton police informed HUB residents what was happening over a load speaker about an hour and a half later. By 3:28 am, information was spreading on social media and posted on the university’s webpage. A text email notification was sent hours later.
“I received a text message, an email as a text, notifying HUB mall would be closed, but nothing about the incident or ‘don’t enter HUB, don’t come to HUB,’” said student Sophia Nam.
University officials suggested they acted appropriately because sending an immediate alert would have attracted more students to the scene.
A report, by the university’s vice president of Risk Management Services, determined the university’s response was “timely” and “appropriate.” (Read the full report below)
“This event was an event that took place very quickly, and the danger associated with that event actually dissipated very rapidly because the armoured car left the campus and left the scene,” said Acting U of A Provost Martin Ferguson-Pell.
Still, the report made 19 recommendations, including continued use of social media to reach students in the future, updating 24 hour contact information for university members, and getting input from EPS in future incidents about whether an emergency notification would be useful.
Protective Services has already made some changes.
“Even though an individual’s life may not be in danger or immediate threat, we will still use our emergency notification system to send a notice out to the university community, which is a change following the HUB mall incident, and was done specifically in response to what we heard from the community,” says Stack.
He adds that, between the U of A’s new protocols and the new safety features, the campus’ security system is one of the best in the country. Stack applauds the work of the Protective Services staff – now, and one year ago.
“We were extremely proud of how all of our front-line staff responded to this incident. It showed they were extremely well trained for the incident and I think they just exhibited exceptional professionalism in responding to what was clearly a very difficult event for us.”
With files from Erin Chalmers, Laurel Clark
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