Motive, relationships in Fort Detrick shooting still unknown
May 7—One month into the investigation of the deceased Fort Detrick sailor who reportedly shot two fellow service members in a Frederick business park April 6, police have no major updates to release to the public.
Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, a 38-year-old Navy Hospital Corpsman stationed at Fort Detrick, reportedly shot two naval sailors with a rifle in the 8400 block of Progress Drive around 8:20 a.m.
The men were working inside a warehouse rented and used for storage by the Naval Medical Research Center, Biological Defense Research Directorate, according to the Frederick Police Department. Woldesenbet, of the 100 block of Willowdale Drive in Frederick, reportedly drove to Fort Detrick immediately after the shooting, where the post's civilian police fatally shot him.
Shooting victim Navy Hospitalman Casey Nutt, 26, of Germantown, was released from the hospital the day of the shooting. Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Carlos Portugal, 36, of Frederick, was hospitalized for a longer stay, but as of Wednesday, he was doing well and had received outpatient care, according to Naval Medical Research Center spokesman Tommy Lamkin.
The police investigation is ongoing, but questions such as motive and details of the shooter's relationship to the victims remain unclear.
"We are still coordinating with all of the partnering agencies involved in this investigation, and at the conclusion of the investigation we will provide the findings," FPD spokesman Allen Etzler wrote in an email Wednesday. "We know there's a desire from the public to receive this information, but we do not want to jeopardize the integrity of the investigation by releasing information without the full picture."
Fort Detrick spokeswoman Lanessa Hill did not have an update Thursday.
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