4 arrested after Wash. armored car guard shot dead

LAKEWOOD, Wash. — Four people have been arrested in the “cold-blooded” slaying of an armored car guard as he carried a money bag out of a Wal-Mart, police said Wednesday. One suspect was a Wal-Mart employee on duty during the robbery.

A man believed to be the gunman and another man were arrested Wednesday, Lakewood police Lt. Heidi Hoffman said. Two earlier arrests include the suspected getaway driver and a woman who was working at the Wal-Mart during the robbery Tuesday afternoon, she said at a news conference.

All four were arrested for investigation of homicide, robbery and assault. Police did not identify them but said more arrests were possible.

Loomis security guard Kurt Husted was shot in the head while leaving an Anchor Bank branch inside the Wal-Mart in this south Tacoma suburb. The same bullet also wounded a customer.

Hoffman said surveillance video of the robbery makes it clear the shooter made no attempt to take the money without violence.

“They just walked up and executed him,” she said. “It was very violent, very cold-blooded.”

Police recovered about two-thirds of the money, as well as a gun that was being tested. Hoffman wouldn’t specify the amount taken but confirmed it was in five figures.

The male customer wounded in the shooting told KIRO-TV he was with his 15-month-old son when he heard the shot and felt a bullet strike him.

“It was just straight cold,” Wilbert Pina said of the killing. “They didn’t give the guy a chance. They shot him, the bullet went through him, smacked me in the shoulder.”

A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment on an employee’s alleged involvement.

“Obviously, it’s a senseless act of violence,” spokesman Greg Rossiter said in a phone interview from Bentonville, Ark. “Our condolences go out to the guard’s family.”

The 39-year-old Husted had worked 16 years for Houston-based Loomis, and was wearing a bulletproof vest, company spokesman Pat Flaherty said.

“We mourn deeply the loss of Kurt Husted,” his family said in a statement released to KING5-TV. “He was a wonderful, caring person whom we loved deeply and will miss forever.”

(This version CORRECTS wounded man’s name to Pina.)