3 killed, trooper injured in Maryland shooting

SMITHSBURG, Md. — An employee opened fire at a manufacturing business in rural western Maryland on Thursday, killing three coworkers before the suspect and a state trooper were wounded in a shootout, authorities said.

Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore said that three victims were found dead at Columbia Machine Inc. in Smithsburg and a fourth victim was critically injured. The sheriff said at a news conference that the victims and suspect were all employees at the facility.

The suspect fled in a vehicle before authorities arrived at the scene and was tracked down by Maryland State Police, Mullendore said. The suspect and a trooper were wounded in an exchange of gunfire, according to the sheriff.

Mullendore said the suspect was a 42-year-old man but declined to release his name while criminal charges were being prepared.

The sheriff identified those killed in the shooting as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30. Mullendore said the wounded victim was Brandon Chase Michael, 42

Maryland State Police Lt. Col. Bill Dofflemyer said that three troopers encountered the suspect’s vehicle and that he opened fire when troopers made a traffic stop. Troopers returned fire, wounding the suspect. Dofflemyer said the wounded trooper is doing well and that the suspect was being treated Thursday night.

Authorities declined to release a motive.

“We’re still working with sheriff’s office on what happened and why it kept escalating,” Dofflemyer told reporters.

Mullendore said the suspect used a semiautomatic handgun, which was recovered after the shootout. He declined to specify the caliber or model.

Family members of workers at the manufacturer were gathering at a fire station in downtown Smithsburg on Thursday evening, awaiting information on their loved ones. They declined to speak to a reporter.

Several hours after the shooting, numerous law enforcement officers remained at the scene. Police had closed off the road that runs past the Columbia Machine Inc. facility, and yellow tape blew in the wind outside the business.

not go in for more than an hour. He bled out.”

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo made the “wrong decision” to not order officers to breach the classroom more quickly to confront the 18-yearold gunman. On Thursday, McCraw was interviewed behind closed doors at the Texas Capitol by a legislative committee tasked with investigating the shooting.

Arredondo has not responded to repeated interview requests and questions from The Associated Press.

Law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details, and made frequent corrections to previous statements. No information about the police response has been formally released since the days that followed the attack.

But the records obtained by the Times offered new details, including that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, had a “hellfire” trigger device meant to allow a semiautomatic AR-15-style rifle to be fired more like an automatic weapon, but did not appear to have used it during the attack. Ramos had spent more than $6,000 amassing an arsenal of weapons that included two AR-15-style rifles, accessories and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to the documents.

The Times reported that some of the officers who first arrived at the school had long guns, and that Arredondo learned the gunman’s identity while inside the school and attempted to communicate with him through the closed classroom doors.

Eva Mireles, one of the teachers who was killed, made a phone call to her husband, a Uvalde school district police officer, during the attack. The documents obtained by the Times show that Ruben Ruiz informed responders on the scene that his wife was still alive in one of the classrooms.

“She says she is shot,” Ruiz could be heard telling other officers as he arrived inside the school at 11:48 a.m., according to the body camera transcript.

By 12:46 p.m., Arredondo gave his approval for officers to enter the room.

“If y’all are ready to do it, you do it,” he said, according to the transcript.