Medic who shot 2 was assigned to naval center
WASHINGTON — A Navy medic who shot and wounded two U.S. sailors before he was killed by police on a nearby Army base was a laboratory technician assigned to a Naval medical research center on the base, according a military official.
Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, 38, and the two men he shot Tuesday were all assigned to Fort Detrick in Frederick.
One of the wounded sailors was released from a Baltimore hospital on Tuesday, while the other was in critical condition, military officials said on the Navy’s Twitter account.
The Navy says it is sending a “Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team” to Fort Detrick to offer mental health services to people on the base.
“We’re still trying to sort through stacks of paper ... to figure out exactly what the motive would be,” Frederick Police Lt. Andrew Alcorn said.
Woldesenbet worked as a lab technician in the Naval Medical Research Center’s Biological Defense Research Directorate at Fort Detrick, Navy Cmdr. Denver Applehans, a spokesman for the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said. The Naval Medical Research Center’s headquarters are in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Woldesenbet’s service record says he enlisted in 2012 and reported to his most recent position in 2019. He was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, a National Defense Service Medal and a Global War on Terrorism Service Medals. It lists his rank as Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class.
Woldesenbet shot the sailors with a rifle at a warehouse rented by the directorate to store equipment. He was killed after entering the base and pulling out a weapon on base police, officials said.