‘I’ve been shot, please help me.’ When a shooting victim ran inside a Maryland business, this man sprung into action

Garett Wagner was working Tuesday morning when a man wearing military fatigues and covered in blood walked into the Nicolock Paving Stones facility in Frederick, Maryland.

“‘I’ve been shot. Please help me. There’s an active shooter, he’s still chasing me,” the man said, according to Wagner, the operations manager at Nicolock.

The wounded man was 26-year-old US Navy Hospitalman Casey Nutt, according to a news release from Frederick officials.

Nutt was one of two sailors who were shot and wounded at what police called a “military institution” in the Riverside Tech Park in Frederick, not far from the Nicolock business.

Nutt was released from a trauma center Tuesday night, while 36-year-old Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Carlos Portugal, who was also injured, remains at the trauma center in critical condition, authorities said Wednesday.

The Navy identified the gunman as Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, a Navy hospital corpsman. After the shooting, Woldesenbet drove to the US military’s nearby Fort Detrick, where he was fatally shot by police. Fort Detrick officials told CNN he was posted at that installation.

‘I just wanted my people safe’

Wagner said he told the injured man to get in the bathroom and close the door. Other employees locked the front door, he said.

“I can’t tell you if I was scared or fearful or trying to help,” Wagner said. “I don’t know.”

Wagner said he ran through the whole facility to get all the other employees into one room and had them all gather in the back maintenance shop, telling them to shut the door until he got back.

“I didn’t process the fact I was putting myself in harm’s way when I did that,” Wagner said. “I just wanted my people safe.”

He said he called 911.

When he returned to the office, the injured man was lying on the floor in the bathroom while someone else was applying pressure to his wounds, Wagner said.

One employee ran out to flag police and other first responders as they arrived, Wagner said.

“You don’t think it’s going to happen here,” Wagner said. “Then it did, and it happened.”

“Did we do the right thing? Did we do alright? I think so. I don’t know.”