SMITHSBURG, Md. At least three people were killed and three others injured — including the suspected gunman and a Maryland State Police officer — in a mass shooting Thursday at a manufacturing facility north of Smithsburg, authorities said.
Sergeant Carly Hose said there was no further threat to the public.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said officers responded to a shooting incident at about 2:30 p.m. When officers arrived at Columbia Machine, they found four gunshot victims, three of whom were dead.
The suspect, a man, fled before the sheriff’s office arrived, Hose said. A state trooper ran into the suspect and they exchanged shots. Both were hit and taken to hospital.
“The trooper is doing well and the suspect is still being treated,” Lieutenant Colonel Bill Dofflemyer, chief of the state police detective agency, said at a news conference Thursday night.
Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore identified the victims as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30. All were employees of the facility. The condition of another employee who was injured in the shooting was not immediately known.
The suspect was identified only as a 23-year-old man from West Virginia who also worked at Columbia Machine, which supplies concrete products to customers in more than 100 countries, according to its website. A motive has not been established, Mullendore said.
Further details about the suspect, including his name, were not provided as no charges have been filed yet, Mullendore said. A semi-automatic pistol was used in the shooting, the sheriff said, but he declined to specify the model or caliber.
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On Twitter, Maryland thanked Sen. Ben Cardin, several law enforcement agencies involved in the response, said, “This can’t keep happening.”
“I am devastated by the lives taken today in Smithsburg and the pain and suffering of their loved ones,” Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement. “Today’s horrific shooting comes at a time when our state and nation have experienced tragedy after tragedy, and it must stop. We must take action to address the mass shootings and the daily toll of gun violence in our communities.”
“I am determined to address your pain with action,” said Van Hollen.
Smithsburg is located about 75 miles northwest of Baltimore, near the Pennsylvania border.
The Maryland shooting is the latest in a series of workplace violence by disgruntled employees or former employees. Sexual assault is the fourth leading cause of death in the workplace, according to the National Safety Council, which killed 392 and injured more than 20,000 in 2020.
In April 2021, a gunman killed nine colleagues at a light rail yard in San Jose, California. A month later, a former employer of a FedEx facility in Indianapolis shot eight people dead and injured seven others in a nighttime attack.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY.