Aubrey Eugene "Skip" Wainwright, 35, had worked for five years making cabinets for Baltimore County facilities in a one-story, cinder-block shop building in the county's Texas complex just off York Road in Cockeysville.
Co-workers and supervisors described him as a skilled, dedicated employee, but a man struggling with a severe alcohol problem and emotional stress. Others spoke of serious morale problems in the shop where he worked, and said Mr. Wainwright was upset because he had been denied a promotion.
Whatever his motivations, police said, Mr. Wainwright apparently set a fire that destroyed the shop early yesterday and then killed himself with a 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol outside the burning building. Firefighters responding to the two-alarm fire found Mr. Wainwright's body, a gunshot wound to his head, the pistol in his lap, police said.
Firefighters had to break through the locked entrance gate to gain access to the building, which sits just 30 feet across narrow Alms House Road from the Deertree apartment complex on Cranbrook Road just east of York Road.
Battalion Chief Patrick Kelly of the Baltimore County Fire Department said investigators believe that Mr. Wainwright set the fire, which destroyed the $1.4 million building, two county trucks and a car. Among the items destroyed was new furniture being made for the Fire Department's new headquarters in the county's Public Safety building at 700 E. Joppa Road.
Police spokesman Cpl. Kevin Novak said police were investigating the death as a suicide, but a final conclusion would depend on the results of an autopsy.
County officials and supervisors said Mr. Wainwright had a history of alcohol abuse and emotional problems that surfaced when he drank.
"He was a classic Dr. Jekyl-Mr. Hyde," said Michael S. Gimbel, director of the county Office of Substance Abuse.
He said Mr. Wainwright twice during the last five years sought help for alcohol-related personal problems through the county's Employees Assistance Program.
When he wasn't drinking, he was fine, Mr. Gimbel said, but
alcohol would unleash hidden problems and bring forth a "very angry . . . hostile guy.
Several officials said Mr. Wainwright had recently been under private treatment, and John R. Miller, Central Services director, said he called in sick Tuesday and did not report for work.
Edward M. Pedrick Jr., president of the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, said Mr. Wainwright had long resented the county's refusal to upgrade his official employment status from "carpenter" to "cabinetmaker," which was the work he was doing.
The union president said that as a skilled worker, Mr. Wainwright valued the prestige he felt was due him by the higher classification, although his pay would have risen only $20 a week.
A woman who identified herself as Mr. Wainwright's mother-in-law answered the phone yesterday at the family home in Glen Rock, Pa., but would say only that "he was emotionally distraught" and the family was too upset to talk.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mason Dixon Baptist