Navy hospital corpsman wounds 2 in Maryland shooting before being killed at Fort Detrick
FREDERICK, Maryland — A man shot and injured two people at a business in the Maryland city of Frederick on Tuesday morning before driving to the U.S. military’s nearby Fort Detrick, where personnel there shot and killed him, police said.
Though police didn’t publicly identify the suspect, the U.S. Navy said he was a Navy hospital corpsman.
The suspect — a 38-year-old man — is believed to have entered a business at Riverside Tech Park in the northeast of the city, and opened fire in or near it, striking two men, Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando told reporters.
He then drove to Fort Detrick, about 10 minutes away, where “personnel on the base” fatally shot him, Lando said.
The men injured at the technology park were in critical condition, and were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baltimore, Lando said
Lando said he didn’t know why the suspect opened fire at the business or subsequently went to Fort Detrick.
Fort Detrick police took the suspect down after he breached a gate at the post, fort officials said. “Medical lifesaving procedures were initiated (but) the gunman was pronounced dead at the scene,” the fort said in a Facebook post.
“We have two different scenes. … We have confirmed there (was) only one (assailant), (and) the public is no longer at risk,” Lando said.
The names of the suspect and the injured men weren’t immediately released.
The suspect was a Navy hospital corpsman, the US Navy said on Twitter. “The U.S. Navy can confirm there was an active shooter incident at Fort Detrick, MD involving U.S. Navy Sailors. The shooter, a Navy Hospital Corpsman, is deceased. We will continue to update with additional details as the situation evolves,” the tweet reads.
Police were called around 8:20 a.m.
Police had been called to the first scene, about a 4-mile drive east of Fort Detrick, around 8:20 a.m., Lando said. “We know some people fled from the business,” Lando said.
After the shooting, a victim entered a nearby business, Nicolock Paving Stones, and asked for help, a person there said.
“Our team was able to assist them and called the authorities,” a statement released by Jeremy Mutschler, director of marketing and advertising at Nicolock, reads. The statement emphasizes that the shooting did not happen at Nicolock.
Police haven’t named the business where the shooting took place.
Special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are responding to assist, the ATF’s office in Baltimore said on Twitter.
Frederick is about a 50-mile drive northwest of Washington, DC.
