A grand jury has indicted the West Virginia man accused of shooting and killing three coworkers at a Maryland machine shop and then shooting and wounding a state trooper who was responding to the incident.
A grand jury has indicted the West Virginia man accused of shooting and killing three coworkers at a Maryland machine shop and then shooting and wounding a state trooper who was responding to the incident.
Joe Louis Esquivel, 23, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, was indicted June 29 in two separate criminal cases, including charges of murder, attempted murder, assault and use of a firearm in a crime of violence, said Christine Remsburg, Assistant State’s Attorney for Washington County, Maryland.
Authorities say Esquivel arrived June 9 for his normal shift at Columbia Machine Inc. in the rural community of Smithsburg in western Maryland. He allegedly worked until he left the building to retrieve a weapon, went back inside and fired on employees near a breakroom.
Smithsburg police responding to a 911 call found a wounded person outside the business. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found three shooting victims inside, all of whom were dead.
Esquivel left the scene in a car and encountered Maryland State Police. A 25-year veteran trooper was shot when police said Esquivel fired at troopers. At least one trooper returned fire, striking the suspect, state police said.
A West Virginia man accused of fatally shooting three co-workers at a western Maryland machine shop remained under police guard at a hospital Friday, but authorities said a Maryland state trooper injured in a shootout with the suspect was treated and released.
A West Virginia man accused of fatally shooting three co-workers at a western Maryland machine shop remained under police guard at a hospital Friday, but authorities said a Maryland state trooper injured in a shootout with the suspect was treated and released.
The 25-year veteran of the Maryland State Police was shot when police said the fleeing suspect fired multiple rounds at troopers who tracked him down in western Maryland. At least one trooper returned fire, striking the suspect, state police said. The injured trooper and suspect were both taken to a hospital.
The trooper has been released, but the suspect remained under police guard while undergoing treatment, police said late Thursday. Charges are pending consultation with the Washington County State’s Attorney’s Office, police said. The troopers involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative duty while an investigation is conducted.
Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore said three men were found dead at Columbia Machine Inc. in Smithsburg on Thursday afternoon and a fourth was critically injured. The victims and suspect were all employees at the facility, he said. The sheriff identified those killed in the shooting as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30.
Reached by telephone Friday, Nelson Michael, the father of Brandon Michael, 42, who was wounded in the machine shop shooting, said his son was still in the hospital, but he didn’t know more about his condition.
“He’s surviving,” he said. “I’m glad he’s alive, but it’s going to work on his nerves. I know that.”
Nelson Michael said he didn’t know why the gunman shot the victims.
“I’m not saying any more. I’m just glad my son’s alive, and I feel so bad for the families of the other ones,” he said.
The shooting suspect was identified as a 23-year-old man who lives in West Virginia, but the sheriff’s office said his name wouldn’t be released until charging documents are filed. Authorities declined to release a motive.
Mullendore said the suspect used a semiautomatic handgun, which was recovered after the shootout.
Smithsburg, a community of nearly 3,000 people, is just west of the Camp David presidential retreat and about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Baltimore. The manufacturing facility was in a sparsely populated area northeast of the town’s center with a church, several businesses and farmland nearby.
Columbia Machine manufactures equipment for concrete products, and its Smithsburg location builds molds and works on parts and repairs for other plants. The company’s CEO, Rick Goode, issued a statement calling the deaths of three employees and the wounding of a fourth tragic.
“Our highest priority during this tragic event is the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families,” he said.
Frey, one of the victims, lived about a half-mile from Dennis Stouffer.
He described Frey as “a solid individual” and “a good guy.”
Stouffer said he would see Frey at the mailbox when he drove by. Stouffer said in a phone interview that Frey once made meat hooks for a deer-meat processing shop he used to run in the small rural community of Smithsburg.
“He didn’t make a bunch of noise or anything. He just went about his work,” Stouffer said.
Speaking late Friday morning, Stouffer said the reason for the shooting remained “a big mystery” to people in the community.
“We’re all in shock and disbelief, and that’s an understatement,” Stouffer said.
As mass shootings continue to fuel debate about gun control around the nation, Stouffer said the Maryland deaths did not change his mind about Second Amendment rights.
“It’s most unfortunate, but you always have to be prepared,” Stouffer said. “Whether it’s church property or your own property or wherever you go, you’re not going to prevent criminals from having guns by passing gun-control laws.”
The MARC Train, or Maryland Area Regional Commuter, serves about 250 West Virginians who live in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties.
The train has been serving the area for more than 30 years, but Maryland has always paid the bills. West Virginia was only responsible for upkeep of its three West Virginia stations.
Recently, that changed.
For the last two years, Maryland has requested a little more than $3 million in funding – otherwise, they’d end the service into West Virginia.
Below is an extended version of this interview:
In 2018, the West Virginia Legislature secured $1.5 million, and Maryland accepted it. This year, lawmakers successfully put $1.1 million in the budget, but it’s unclear if Maryland will accept the offer.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting spoke with Del. Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, the House Majority Whip and member of the House Finance Committee, to discuss the future of MARC in West Virginia.
Hundreds of West Virginians travel from the Eastern Panhandle to Maryland or Washington D.C. every weekday for work. These commuters catch the Maryland-based MARC train, or Maryland Area Regional Commuter.
But during this year’s West Virginia Legislative session, lawmakers debated the future of the MARC train in the state.
Maryland threatened to discontinue MARC service to West Virginia unless certain provisions were met.
Commuting on the MARC Train
It’s almost 7 o’clock in the morning. The MARC train approaches Harpers Ferry; its last West Virginia stop before making several stops in Maryland. The final destination of the morning is Union Station in Washington, D.C.
The closer we get to D.C., the fuller the train gets. From Martinsburg to Union Station – it’s a two-hour commute.
The passengers from West Virginia say the MARC train is one of the main reasons they decided to live or stay in West Virginia — like 27-year-old Matt Myers.
“When we were looking for places, we found one that was only a mile-in-a-half from the train station,” he said, “so it’s been helpful having the MARC extend out that far. It definitely helped inform my choice to live there.”
The train is comfortable, well-lit, clean and air-conditioned. There are big windows and power outlets to charge a phone or a laptop. There’s a bathroom in the first car, and I’m told there’s one car labeled the “Quiet Car,” where you aren’t supposed to talk.
Some passengers read, some work or chat, and others sleep.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The MARC train’s Brunswick Line parked at the Martinsburg Train Station.
Another Martinsburg resident, 29-year-old Amber Darlington, actually moved from Maryland to Martinsburg for the lower cost of living and access to the MARC train for her job.
“My partner and I really couldn’t afford to live in Germantown for what we wanted,” she said, “so we chose Martinsburg mainly because of the train, and we could actually afford to live there.”
Maryland Demands Funding from West Virginia
The MARC train serves 300 to 400 West Virginia residents just like Matt and Amber every weekday.
For more than 30 years, Maryland paid for the trains into West Virginia, while West Virginia paid for its three local stations — Martinsburg, Duffields and Harpers Ferry.
But after 2010, Maryland requested funding from West Virginia if it wanted to keep the MARC train in the Eastern Panhandle.
In 2013, the Commuter Rail Access Fund was created by the West Virginia Legislature for this purpose…but each budget year, for one reason or another, funding was never added.
So, Maryland began imposing a fare increase on tickets purchased in West Virginia, and over time, fewer and fewer stops were scheduled in-state.
Jefferson County Delegate Riley Moore says in 2018, Maryland insisted that West Virginia lawmakers take action to fill the line item in the budget.
“MARC says, okay, look, you all have never paid us for this, and here’s the bill, and the bill originally starts off from Maryland at $3.8 million,” Moore said.
Maryland told West Virginia lawmakers if they didn’t receive that $3.8 million, MARC service in West Virginia would end as early as July of this year.
During the session, lawmakers didn’t find $3.8 million, but they did secure $1.5 million for MARC services…which Maryland accepted, for now.
“In the intervening year,” Moore explained, “what we are going to do is bring all the stakeholders to the table, which would be the counties, the towns, the state, and the federal level to see where we can find funding from each source to have a permanent solution here for funding for the MARC train and also expand that service.”
Moore says he’s hopeful they can come to an agreement, and notes ticket prices will not increase on West Virginia riders this year.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Martinsburg, WV” flashes on the destination sign inside the MARC train car. Martinsburg is the first stop for MARC’s Brunswick Line Eastbound and the last stop for MARC’s Brunswick Line Westbound.
Future of MARC in West Virginia
Meanwhile, commuters like Matt Myers and Amber Darlington are still concerned about losing the train.
What would they do without the service?
“[Make] the longer commute to Brunswick? But that [would be] about 45 minutes in the car, an hour-in-a-half on the train, and then 30 minutes on the bike,” Myers said, “so I’m not sure. We [might consider] moving; kind of hard to even think about really.”
“I moved to West Virginia because of the train, because of the MARC train,” Darlington explained, “and if they cut the service, I’d have to drive to work, which is 65 miles one way, both ways, five days a week, and that’s going to take such a toll on my car, and I hate driving.”
The Maryland Department of Transportation’s Public Affairs Director Erin Henson was not available for an interview but said in a statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting on April 5, 2018, “a formal agreement has not yet been signed,” however, the Department is working with the West Virginia State Rail Authority to come up with a deal.
***Editor’s Note: The headline was tweaked on April 12, 2018 for clarification.
After threatening to sue the state of Maryland, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has announced that Maryland is halting the permitting process that would have restricted West Virginia’s use of the Potomac River.
News outlets report that Morrisey had told Maryland officials in early November that the state of Maryland could not impose regulations on West Virginia’s rights to draw from the river.
Morrisey announced Wednesday that Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and Maryland Secretary of the Environment Ben Grumbles said in a Nov. 22 letter that West Virginia users are not required to get permits from Maryland.
Morrisey had argued that his state needs the water to support a $500 million manufacturing plant that P&G plans to build on its side of the Potomac.
The Maryland Department of the Environment says Verso Corp. will pay a $10,000 settlement for two chemical spills that tainted the Potomac River last fall.
Agency spokesman Jay Apperson said Thursday the amount is the same as a fine the agency proposed in February.
The spills at Verso’s paper mill in the western Maryland town of Luke included 9,500 gallons of synthetic latex on Sept. 23 and some concentrated red dye on Oct. 2.
The chemicals went through a wastewater treatment plant before reaching the river. The latex spill prompted two West Virginia communities to close their drinking water intakes before Maryland regulators concluded there was no public health threat.
Apperson says Memphis, Tennessee-based Verso had complied with agency requests for measures to reduce the chance of future spills.
