TACOMA, Wash. - A convicted felon charged with the deadly shooting of an armored car guard at a Wal-Mart in Lakewood on Tuesday was being sought on a nationwide warrant at the time of the killing.

State Department of Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail says a warrant was issued for Calvin Finley's arrest Feb. 17 when he failed to report to his community corrections officer. Vail says a special department unit that searches for fugitive offenders was assigned to start looking for him.

Department spokesman Chad Lewis says the department made the extra effort to find the 34-year-old Finley because he had been assessed as a dangerous person likely to commit violence.

But officers were not able to locate Finley before Tuesday, when Loomis armored truck guard Kurt Husted, 39, was gunned down in cold blood as terrified Wal-Mart shoppers looked on.

Prosecutors allege the shooting and robbery were carried out by Finley and four other suspects. One of the suspects grabbed money bags away from the guard after the shooting, getting away with more than $40,000.

Finley was arrested Wednesday by a police SWAT team near a Fife motel.

Pierce County prosecutors later charged him with aggravated first-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm. He is being held on $5 million bail.

Four other people - Marshawn Turpin, 20; Tonie Williams-Irby, 42; Odies Walker, 41; and Brittney Marie Maas-Baines - have been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the case. All five suspects have pleaded not guilty.

Court documents say the suspects spent about a month planning the robbery.

According to jail records, Finley also was wanted on warrants for failing to appear in Lakewood and Tacoma municipal courts for numerous violations.

Lewis said Finley was aware authorities were looking for him, and "he was hiding quite a bit" in the months before the shooting.

Lewis said in 2006 Finley was placed under the supervision of the Corrections Department after his conviction for violating a domestic-violence protection order.

Vail wrote Finley violated the terms of the supervision in July 2008 when a drug test found traces of marijuana in his body.

In mid-February, Finley was released from jail and was required to check in with the community corrections officer but failed to do so. Vail said that's when the arrest warrant was issued.