(Associated Press) A Navy medic shot and critically wounded two people at a Maryland business park Tuesday, then fled to a nearby Army base where he was shot and killed, police and U.S. Navy officials said.
The man entered a business at the Riverside Tech Park, causing people inside to flee, but it was unclear if the shooting took place inside or outside, Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando said. Lando said detectives are still trying to determine a possible motive and what the shooter’s relationship was to his victims.
After the shooting, the medic drove about 10 minutes to Fort Detrick, where he was shot by base personnel, Lando said at a news conference. The two people who were critically wounded by the shooter were airlifted to a hospital, he said. A spokeswoman for Shock Trauma at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore did not immediately respond to an email asking for an update on their conditions.
Lando said the man who was killed on base was the same person who shot the two people at the business park. Fort Detrick officials later confirmed that on the base’s Facebook page.
The two people who were critically wounded by the shooter were airlifted to a hospital, Lando said.
Fort Detrick spokeswoman Lanessa Hill said the gunman drove through a gate at an entrance to the base before base personnel confronted him on a road.
“It wasn’t that long before he came through the gate. Not even a quarter of a mile,” Hill said. She said Frederick police had given them advance notice, “so we knew that he was out there.”
Fort Detrick is a U.S. Army base in Frederick that is home to the military’s flagship biological defense laboratory and several federal civilian biodefense labs. About 10,000 military personnel and civilians work on the base, which encompasses about 1,300 acres (526 hectares) in the city of Frederick.
The base is a huge economic driver in the region, drawing scientists, military personnel and their families. Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor noted that various defense contractors are located near Fort Detrick and that it wouldn’t be unusual for a member of the military to be off base and working with a private firm that does business with the U.S. government.
Lando called the shootings “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 backyards.”
