The police responded to reports of gunfire near Fort Detrick, an Army base in Frederick, Md. The suspect was identified as a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman.
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Police Respond to Gunfire Near Maryland Army Base
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Frederick Police and our partner law enforcement agencies received a call for an active shooter in the Riverside Tech Park on Progress Drive in the City of Frederick. Upon arrival at the scene, they found two adult males had been shot. Both males were in critical condition. They were flown by helicopter to Baltimore Shock Trauma. Shortly after that, we received information. The shooter, a 38-year-old male, traveled to the Fort Detrick military base. As our officers and our partner agencies began responding there, we were given notice that personnel on the base had shot the suspect and he was down. When we arrived at that scene, life-saving efforts were in progress, and we were notified shortly thereafter that the shooter was reported dead. At this time, the last update we have is that both of our victims are in critical condition at Baltimore Shock Trauma. It’s happening too frequently. Every time we turn on the TV, we’re seeing something like this happen, and now it’s happening in our backyard. So no one wants to see this type of thing. The most important thing that we want to reassure the community right now is that there’s no further threat to the Frederick city and Frederick County resident.
Two men were seriously injured near Fort Detrick, an Army base in Frederick, Md., on Tuesday morning and the person who shot them, a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman, is dead, according to the authorities.
The police responded to reports of gunfire at a business park on Progress Drive at about 8:20 a.m., Jason Lando, the police chief in Frederick, said at a news conference.
Chief Lando said the gunman shot two men at the Riverside Tech Park. They were flown by helicopter to a shock trauma center in Baltimore, where they were in critical condition, Chief Lando said.
The U.S. Navy confirmed that the gunman was a Navy hospital corpsman but did not identify him.
The gunman then drove about 10 minutes to Fort Detrick, which is about 50 miles northwest of Washington and 20 miles south of Camp David.
As the police began rushing to Fort Detrick, they learned that personnel at the base had shot the gunman.
He had breached a gate at the base just off Opossumtown Pike, the Fort Detrick police said.
The Fort Detrick police said that they “neutralized an active-shooter situation” and that “medical lifesaving procedures were initiated.”
The gunman, who Chief Lando said was 38, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Fort Detrick police.
Chief Lando said that the police were still trying to learn about any relationship between the gunman and the victims, why he targeted the business park and where exactly the shootings took place.
He described the Riverside Tech Park as a “row of businesses” where the gunman opened fire.
At least one shooting took place near Nicolock Paving Stones, said Jeremy Mutschler, the director of marketing for the company. The shooting took place in an adjacent lot, he said.
After the shooting, one of the victims entered Nicolock Paving Stones, where employees tried to help him. The man had been shot in the chest and neck and was bleeding profusely, according to Mr. Mutschler.
Employees took him to a restroom and then called the authorities, Mr. Mutschler said.
Michael O’Connor, the mayor of Frederick, said in an interview with WJLA that there was no reason to believe the shootings were a “random act.”
“What I’ve heard is that it’s likely that the individuals are at least aware of one another,” Mr. O’Connor said. “What caused this to turn into an incident like this — it’s difficult because they haven’t been able to talk to the victims yet.”
Chief Lando said that the gunman went into a business in the industrial park and that people fled from the building. He did not identify the business the gunman entered.
The shootings on Tuesday occurred two weeks after a gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo. The shooting in Colorado came only six days after eight people were killed in shootings at three massage businesses in the Atlanta area.
“It’s terrible,” Chief Lando said of the shootings in Frederick. “It’s very tragic. It’s happening too frequently. Every time we turn on the TV, we’re seeing something like this happening and now it’s happening in our backyard.”
Fort Detrick is the largest employer in Frederick County, according to Frederick County Workforce Services. Around 10,000 service members, federal employees and contractors work at the base, according to the services’ website, which helps connect employers and employees in the area.
Fort Detrick is home to the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
In 2019, the government shut down a military germ lab at the institute after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a cease-and-desist order to halt research into toxins such as organisms that cause Ebola, smallpox, anthrax and plague. The C.D.C. issued the order because the institute did not have “sufficient systems in place to decontaminate wastewater” from its highest-security labs.
In 2009, research at the institute in Fort Detrick was suspended because it was storing pathogens not listed in its database.
The army institute also employed Bruce E. Ivins, a microbiologist who was a leading suspect — but who was never charged — in the anthrax mailings in 2001 that killed five people. Dr. Ivins died in 2008, apparently by suicide.