BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — Investigators have “no idea” why a Maryland man fatally shot his parents at their home and gunned down two other people at a convenience store before setting fire to his apartment and killing himself, a police official said Monday, according to AP News.
Joshua Green, 27, is accused of Sunday’s murderous rampage, according to Baltimore County Police Col. Andre Davis. Green reportedly used a firearm that he legally purchased in 2020 to commit the crimes.
“As to why this occurred, we have no idea yet,” Davis said at a news conference. “Our homicide detectives are tirelessly investigating a motive, but it appears that the shooter acted alone.”
Police believe Green killed his parents — Douglas Green, 59, and Olivia Green, 63 — at their Baltimore County home before he drove over to a Royal Farms store in Essex just before 7 a.m. on Sunday.
Green blocked in another car in the store’s parking lot, got out and shot and killed Alpha Elizabeth, 63, while she sat in her vehicle, according to Davis. Green then entered the store and fatally shot a customer, 44-year-old Silvester Day Jr., near a cash register before wounding a store employee, AP News reported.
Davis said the male store employee was is stable condition at a hospital on Monday.
After the shooting, police said, Green returned to his nearby home and set fire to his apartment before shooting himself. Police found the apartment engulfed in flames and Green dead in the parking lot with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
There was no mention of further injury to others at the apartment complex due to arson.
Homicide detectives found the bodies of Green’s parents in their garage when they went to their home to notify them of their son’s death, according to Davis.
Davis said Green had “no criminal contacts with police” before the shootings, according to AP News.
Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said that there were “more questions than answers” about a “horrific and sickening event which changed the lives of many people.”
“For now, we know that four innocent people lost their lives and one person sustained serious injuries,” she said.
Investigators have spoken to a relative of Green, according to Hyatt, but she didn’t elaborate.
“When we are able to definitively have facts and information, we will relay that. We just want to make sure that we are putting out accurate information,” the chief said.
Green’s parents lived in an unincorporated part of Baltimore County called Baldwin. Daniel Brennaman, 73, a neighbor who lives two doors down from the couple’s home said he has exchanged greetings and small talk with the couple but didn’t know them personally.
“I wave at him from time to time. He’s always working in his yard,” he said.
Royal Farms spokesperson Breahna Brown said Sunday that the company had no immediate comment on the shooting at its store.
