Fired Employee Shoots Supervisors, Self at Maryland Business

GLEN BURNIE, Md. – A fired employee shot two supervisors at a food distribution business Wednesday, then shot fatally himself in the head just outside the front door, authorities and the business owner said.

Police identified the gunman as Joseph A. Cobb, 54, of Point Pleasant.

The two victims, Raymond Himes Jr., 37, and Jack Helms, 49, were in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries at the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, said Lt. David Waltemeyer, a police spokesman.

Cobb died at the hospital about two and a half hours after the shootings.

According to police, Cobbs walked in the front door with a handgun and confronted Himes, shot him in the arm, then walked down a hallway to Helms' office and shot Helms twice in the stomach.

Cobb then left the building and while standing in front of it, shot himself in the head, according to police.

"All he had to do was take about 12 steps, and (he) started firing," said George Wagner, the owner of H&M Wagner and Sons.

The company had fired the shooter several weeks earlier, Waltemeyer said. According to Wagner, the man had been a truck driver for the company for about four years.

Police said investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the shootings.

H&M Wagner is an independent food distributor with customers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to its Web site. Glen Burnie is about 10 miles south of Baltimore.

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