An employee killed three coworkers and wounded another one, which is in critical condition, after a shooting at a manufacturing facility in Smithsburg, in rural western Maryland, on Thursday afternoon.
The suspected attacker who is also an employee at the facility, identified as a 23-year-old Hispanic male from West Virginia, used a semi-automatic handgun and was shot and injured during a confrontation with a Maryland State Police trooper, who was also wounded in the shoulder.
The exact caliber, make and model of the gun have not been released and the attacker has been hospitalized. The police also declined to release his name while criminal charges were being prepared.
The Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore’s Office confirmed the death toll resulting from the violence at Columbia Machine, noting that the motive for the shooting is still under investigation and stressing that no active threat to the community remains there.
Mullendore said that the suspect fled the shooting scene in a vehicle before authorities arrived but was later tracked down by Maryland State Police and arrested following an exchange of gunfire during which he was wounded.
According to Maryland State Police Lt. Col. Bill Dofflemyer, three troopers encountered the suspect’s vehicle during a traffic stop adding that the wounded trooper is doing well.
According to the group Gun Violence Archives, which collects data from thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country and counts as a mass shooting an incident with four or more victims, there have been more than 250 mass shootings in the US so far this year.
Lamenting the loss of life in his state so soon after other recent shootings, US Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, has vowed action, stressing they must act to address the mass shootings and daily toll of gun violence on their communities.
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