Convicted Canadian Cop Killer Arrested in Valley

A convicted murderer who escaped from a Canadian prison three months ago has been arrested in the San Fernando Valley, where he had been living while working as a Web site designer in Northridge, authorities said Friday.

Gary Fitzgerald, 37, was apprehended Thursday about 8:30 p.m. as he left a coin laundry at Saticoy Street and Oso Avenue, said Aaron Wilson, a special agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

As a teenager serving in the Canadian army, Fitzgerald killed a Canadian police officer and a gas station attendant during a 1980 robbery spree, INS officials said. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of another police officer, and was sentenced to two life terms in prison.

Fitzgerald apparently entered the United States at a small border crossing in Sumas, Wash., on Oct. 11, three days after escaping from a British Columbia prison, Wilson said. Within days, authorities said, he was in the West Valley.

“We don’t believe he had any family or friends in the U.S. whatsoever,” Wilson said. “It may very well be that Los Angeles is a place that people can blend in. Los Angeles is also really the hub where counterfeit identification documents are made and then distributed throughout the country.”

Using the alias William Joseph Jackson, Fitzgerald rented a room in a single-family house and got a job at a Blockbuster video store in the Fallbrook Mall, Wilson said. Two weeks ago, Fitzgerald--who had earned a degree in computer technology while in prison--became a Web design intern at Digitape Systems in Northridge.

The blond, blue-eyed Canadian apparently aroused no suspicion here until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police relayed to the INS a tip that the fugitive was in the area. Special agents from the INS Fugitive Alien Removal Unit traced a 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity to Fitzgerald and then spent hours Thursday canvassing the neighborhood until they spotted the car, Wilson said.

Agents followed Fitzgerald to the coin laundry and arrested the unarmed man without incident as he tried to leave. Canadian authorities have initiated extradition proceedings.