On the evening of May 24, 1979, a routine inspection at the United States Port of Entry in Lynden, Washington, turned deadly for 34-year-old, White male, U.S. Customs Inspector Kenneth G. Ward. What began as a standard secondary screening of a couple entering from Canada escalated into a violent confrontation that ended his life. The two individuals, Artie Ray Baker, 26, and his companion Marie Laure Ferreboeuf, 26, had aroused suspicion due to their lack of luggage after claiming a three-day trip to Canada and not being the registered owners of their 1974 Chevrolet Vega.
Unbeknownst to the inspectors on duty, Baker was a fugitive who had escaped from a California prison in 1977, where he was serving a life sentence for the 1972 murders of an elderly couple. He and Ferreboeuf were associated with a radical group with ties to the Symbionese Liberation Army. As Inspector Ward attempted to conduct a pat-down search of Baker inside the border station, Baker resisted. He then drew a. 45 caliber handgun and fatally shot Inspector Ward in the chest at point-blank range. Baker also fired at the other inspector on duty before he and Ferreboeuf fled in their car.
A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was inside the station at the time witnessed the shooting and pursued the fleeing couple. The ensuing manhunt involved approximately 125 officers, a helicopter, and a fixed-wing aircraft. The search led officers east of Lynden, where the couple's car became stuck near the Nooksack River. Ferreboeuf was apprehended in the early morning hours of the following day, found hiding in bushes near railroad tracks. Later that morning, a Bellingham Police Detective located Baker crouching in bushes and arrested him without a struggle. He was still in possession of the murder weapon.
Artie Ray Baker was convicted of the premeditated murder of Inspector Ward on September 18, 1979. While awaiting sentencing, he masterminded a bloody, but ultimately failed, escape attempt from the King County Jail in October 1979. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison for the murder, with additional time for the escape attempt. Marie Laure Ferreboeuf was convicted of being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1987, the new Lynden border station was officially named in honor of Inspector Kenneth G. Ward, the first time in U.S. Customs' history that a border station was named after an officer killed in the line of duty.
