Maryland Security Guard Shot Multiple Times Outside Goodwill
WALKERSVILLE, Md. (AP) -- Maryland State Police were searching Friday for a gunman who shot a Goodwill store security guard, leaving him critically injured, as he sat in a car outside a store where he worked.
Police said the shooting by a masked gunman was reported at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, half an hour after the store in Walkersville closed.
Victim Gerald Campbell, 42, of Frederick was being treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center Shock Trauma unit in Baltimore after having been flown there Thursday night.
Campbell had been working for a few months in one of several new safety positions, said Leigh Adams, spokeswoman for Frederick-based Goodwill Monocacy Valley. She said the unarmed, uniformed guards rotate among larger stores in the organization's eight-store network in Frederick and Carroll counties. Walkersville is among the larger stores, she said.
"One of the main roles is to make sure the facilities of our stores are safe," Adams said. She said the officers guard against shoplifting, check on store maintenance and assist customers.
Campbell had worked for the organization as a donation dock attendant for about a year before he was promoted to the safety position, she said.
Maryland State Police Sgt. Marc Black said Campbell was shot multiple times.
Lt. Wayne Wachsmuth, commander of the agency's Frederick barrack, told The Frederick News-Post the shooter walked up to a silver Hyundai in which the victim was sitting and fired a handgun.
Adams said Goodwill Monocacy Valley has received an outpouring of supportive messages from the community and Goodwill organizations around the country.
She declined to discuss Campbell's career background or family situation.
"We're praying for him," she said.
(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)