The alleged gunman in last week’s shooting at a Smithsburg factory told police that he fired on four co-workers because he believed they were “pedophiles,” according to an arrest warrant filed in court. No evidence has emerged to support such a claim, and the charging documents did not provide any witness statements that explains any argument or altercation that preceded the gunfire.

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       Joe Louis Esquivel, of West Virginia, made the statement to police after his arrest on murder and other charges in the shooting that left three employees dead and a fourth critically wounded at Columbia Machine last week, according to charging documents made public Monday.

       “The people I shot were pedophiles,” Esquivel told a deputy with him in an ambulance on the way to a hospital after the shooting, charging documents said.

       Police search for clues, motive in Maryland shooting that left 3 dead

       Esquivel was ordered held without bond pending trial after a hearing Monday afternoon. Brian Hutchison, an attorney with the public defender’s office in Washington County, did not speak to the allegations against Esquivel in court and declined to address reporters after the hearing. An official at the central Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore declined to comment, saying the office was “still gathering information about our client and the case.”

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       Neither the prosecution nor defense attorneys discussed any mention of Esquivel’s claims of pedophilia in court, and police did not immediately respond to further inquiries Monday. Although there does not appear to be evidence that Esquivel was a QAnon follower, there have been several incidents nationwide involving adherents who have engaged in violence saying they were fighting a massive international pedophilia ring.

       Attempts to reach Esquivel’s family have been unsuccessful.

       The shooting at Columbia Machine happened Thursday about 2:30 p.m., authorities said. Washington County deputies responded to the 12900 block of Bikle Road, east of Hagerstown near the Pennsylvania border. Deputies responded to what was reported as an “active shooter.”

       The lone surviving gunshot victim, a 42-year-old man, told police that he was seated in the break room looking at his phone with three other men at about 2:30 p.m. when he heard four gunshots, the arrest warrant said. The victim looked up and saw “Joe” holding a gun, before he was struck by gunfire. The wounded employee then ran from the building, he told police.

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       Esquivel was stopped later, about 10 miles south of the company, where he exchanged gunfire with a Maryland State Police trooper, authorities allege. In a separate arrest document, authorities allege that the West Virginia man intentionally rammed his vehicle into a state trooper’s cruiser, as he fled the scene of a mass shooting and fired bullets at police in hopes they would kill him, according to court records. Both Esquivel and a state trooper were wounded during the exchange of gunfire, authorities said.

       Three dead after man shoots co-workers in Smithsburg, Md., police say

       Investigators identified the fatal shooting victims as Mark Allan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30. Attempts to reach family members of the victims and the surviving victim were not immediately successful on Monday. A family member of one victim declined to comment Monday.

       Police arrested Esquivel following the exchange of gunfire, and as he was being treated, the 23-year-old told troopers that “he asked to be killed and noted that he shot that guy because he’s a pedophile,” the charging documents said.

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       Court files said that the trooper “sustained a gun shot wound to the shoulder area,” and that Esquivel was wounded in his left chest and left leg.

       According to the court files, Esquivel drove his Mitsubishi Eclipse directly in the front bumper of an unmarked state police Ford Explorer responding to the shootings in Smithsburg. The SUV and a marked police car that responded to the shootings in Smithsburg were struck by bullets, the charging documents said.

       Esquivel appeared virtually from jail at a bond hearing in Washington County District Court on Monday afternoon and listened to Judge W. Timothy Finan read the more than 30 charges listed against him.

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       Assistant State’s Attorney Brock Shriver argued Esquivel be held without bond as he accused him of murdering three co-workers “in cold blood” in their own workplace before Esquivel fled the scene and had a shootout with police “in the middle of the day … in broad daylight.”

       “This is as dangerous of an individual as there is,” Shriver said to the court.

       Hutchison said in court that he would reserve his argument for a preliminary hearing.

       Peter Hermann contributed to this report.