Remembering community members killed, injured in Columbia Machine shooting near Smithsburg

SMITHSBURG — It's been six days and the pain might never cease.

The Tri-State area lost three of its community members and saw two more injured in shootings Thursday near Smithsburg.

Mark Alan Frey, 50, of Waynesboro, Pa.; Charles "C.J." Edward Minnick Jr., 31, of Smithsburg; and Joshua "Josh" Robert Wallace, 30, of the Hagerstown area, were killed at work, Columbia Machine at 12921 Bikle Road. Also shot was co-worker Brandon Chase Michael, 42, who was taken to Meritus Medical Center.

Detective Sgt. Phillip Martin, assigned to the Criminal Enforcement Division Western Region, was hit in an exchange of gunfire with the shooter about 6.5 miles southwest of the first shooting scene. The trooper was released from Meritus Medical Center on Thursday night.

Court records: Columbia Machine shooter tried to commit suicide-by-cop

The Berkeley County, West Virginia, man charged in the shootings faces three counts each of first- and second-degree murder and three counts each of attempted first-degree and attempted second-degree murder, among other charges. The suspect was being held without bond at the Washington County Detention Center.

In the days following the shootings, people who knew those killed at the Bikle Road business spoke with The Herald-Mail to share memories of their family members, friends or former co-workers. Brandon Michael's father also briefly spoke with an Associated Press reporter Friday.

Remembering C.J. Minnick

Charles Minnick Jr. "was just a delightful kid," who had "always been a country boy — but he had country smarts."

"C.J.," as Tim Johnson of Falling Waters, W.Va., knew him, was a precocious child.

"I remember when he was just a little kid … he'd sit down with you and he'd ask you questions about things, he'd talk to you and hold a better conversation than most adults could," Johnson, a cousin, told The Herald-Mail on Friday.

Minnick's mother, Robin Specht, called him "quite an amazing young man. He was always very bubbly. He never met a stranger. Everybody that knew him pretty much loved him because of his infectious smile."

And "he was a goofball," she told The Herald-Mail.

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"He always told the best stories. He was a storyteller from way back … when his sister's two children were younger, he would get these crazy accents" to embellish his tales, she said. "He would always pretend to be like this guide in the woods, and he would tell these crazy stories and he just always had everybody laughing, you know?"

And then she cried a little.

He'd married Lisa, "the love of his life," several years ago, Specht said. They have a little girl named Kaylee, age 2.

"They were the cutest couple, and then to see him be a daddy to his little girl was just very magical. I mean, his face would light up.

"She loves the outdoors like he does. And she's got that infectious little smile, too," Specht said. "He always had that twinkle in his eyes because his eyes were blue, and she's got that same twinkle. She's just a carbon copy of him and pretty amazing."

"One of the things I definitely enjoyed most about C.J. was just how nothing was ever too serious with him," remembered another cousin, Brian Delauter, who frequently saw him while they were hunting on a family member's property. "Not in an immature way, but you know, it was light and just made being around him enjoyable.

"He was always a happy guy, but bring Lisa around and you could tell that that was his other half for sure. And then becoming a dad was probably one of the greatest things in his life. I have no doubt that was his greatest joy in his life — through all the deer, all the fish, all the other good stuff that he got himself into that that little girl was the light of his life by all means," Delauter said.

"The thing I try not to keep kicking myself over … I wish we would have talked more; I wish I would have seen him more."

Johnson remembered in a Facebook post how he'd taken C.J.'s sister Heidi to Antietam National Battlefield to work on a school project. "Of course, C.J. came along, following in my footsteps the whole time like a puppy dog, constantly asking questions," he said.

"Every time we would meet up with another battlefield visitor, C.J. would go up to them and say, 'That’s my cousin. He is a re-enactor.' Then he would proudly walk back to join us on our tour."

Minnick wasn't quite the history buff his cousin is, Johnson said, but "he appreciated history."

But he "loved, loved, loved to hunt," Specht said. "He would go into deer-pression when January came around and he couldn't hunt till September.

"He was just an amazing dad. He was an amazing husband," Specht said. "He always tried to see the best in everybody; he was a social butterfly. He was just full of life."

Remembering Josh Wallace

Taylor Toms said she and Josh Wallace went on their first date to Sonic, where she ordered a footlong chili cheese dog.

"If you don't love me for who I am now, you never will," she said she thought when ordering the messy hot dog after the couple met on Facebook. "He still kissed me after that.

"Josh showed me what true love was. He gave me butterflies, that bubbly, happy feeling," said Toms, 25, a hairstylist at Illusions in Inwood, W.Va.

Toms' father, Michael, said Wallace was "so kind-hearted in giving to my daughter," who has had some struggles.

"For the first time in 25 years in her life, I could feel she was OK because he always made it right," Michael Toms said during a family phone interview with The Herald-Mail on Saturday.

Taylor Toms described her boyfriend as a provider and protector.

"He was everything to me and he loved me so much and that was all I could ask of him," Taylor Toms said. "The way he looked at me, I could tell how much he loved me. Anytime I was getting to be a brat or cranky or crazy, he was so patient with me."

The couple were living downstairs in the Westfields home of Michael Toms and his wife, Bonnie Lee, saving money for a place of their own and marriage, Bonnie Lee said.

Taylor said Wallace was a hard worker, working not only at Columbia Machine but taking side jobs like mowing for a buddy's company after his day job. He planned to study next spring at a West Virginia school to get his master electrician license, the Toms family said.

Wallace and Michael Toms spent a lot of time together in recent months working on a condo the Tomses have in Ocean City, Md.

Wallace was a "good, old-fashioned country boy" who liked to fish and hunt, Bonnie Lee Toms said. He was a foodie who loved to make spices and do smoke outs with friends, the Toms family said. He also loved to try different cuisines and with his buddies ordered a whole alligator, which they grilled at a party, she said.

He also loved to eat seafood and started fishing off Assateague Island, friending locals to learn more and found a fishing spot the locals used, Michael Toms said.

A few weeks ago, Wallace lost a $300 fishing rod in the ocean.

He was upset Taylor would be mad because she'd know he would spend another $300 of his savings on another rod, Michael Toms said.

Taylor Toms started a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses for Wallace.

Toms said she believes people want her to say that the shooter should be dead, but she doesn't wish that on him.

"I wish I had that anger on him. But I wish the people suffering and who have gone through all this, that we all come together and realize this man that did this, he's sick," she said.

It's also "too easy for him to die," she said. He has to learn and get help.

For all of us to move on, we need to "forgive that sick man," Taylor Toms said. "And we move on and mourn for everyone that's been lost."

"My heart goes out to all those who suffered in this terrible incident," she said.

Wallace is the son of Tammy Boyd-Roberts of the Hagerstown area, who was not prepared Saturday to talk about her son. His father is deceased.

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Remembering Mark Frey

Joanie Gerber, who was president of Bikle Manufacturing before it was sold in 2019 and became Columbia Machine, said Mark Frey worked at the company for 25-plus years, working for her and her grandfather, Richard Bikle.

He attended Smithsburg schools and was a student at Smithsburg High School when she was a student there, with the two a year apart, Gerber said.

Frey was a family man, an avid hunter and dependable, she said Saturday in a phone interview.

"He was a good, faithful and loyal employee," Gerber said.

Brandon Michael

Reached by telephone Friday, Nelson Michael, the father of Brandon Michael, 42, who was wounded in the Columbia Machine shooting, said his son was still in the hospital, but he didn't know more about his condition, according to The Associated Press.

"He’s surviving,” Nelson Michael 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 Associated Press contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Community remembers victims of Columbia Machine shooting by Smithsburg