Photo by Bill Green A robbery occurred Monday around 12:30 p.m. at Jim’s Liquors on Opossumtown Pike, according to police. The suspect died in the fire, which erupted about 1:45 p.m., police said.

Douglas, 29, known to some as "Menace," had been having problems, but Disney declined to say what kind. Disney's heart sank when he heard his friend threaten to set fire to the building if police didn't back off.

A robbery attempt at Jim's Liquors at Antietam Village Shopping Center ended in a three-alarm blaze that killed Douglas. No one else was injured in the fire.

Douglas tried to rob the store, but owner Greg Kaczor fled to nearby Dunkin' Donuts to call police about 12:47 p.m.

The gunman fired at least two shots at officers as they arrived, said Lt. Richard Hetherington of the Frederick Police Department. Negotiators made contact with Douglas by telephone, but eventually lost contact.

That's when the fire started, Hetherington said. Officers did not fire tear gas into the building.

The fire, which started about 1:45 p.m, consumed the two-story building and destroyed about a dozen businesses in the center.

Two state fire marshals called to the scene in the afternoon left about 7 p.m., said Mike Dmuchowski, spokesman for the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Service.

By 8:30 p.m. fire companies had cleared the scene, he said. Police remained overnight and state and county fire marshals were expected to investigate the fire beginning at 9 a.m. today.

The suspect's body remained inside the charred building at press time.

Witness accounts

Minutes before Douglas entered Jim's Liquors, a funeral service at Church of the Nazarene ended and mourners left Westhaven Memorial Gardens about 12:30 p.m.

Kathryn Zeender, administrative secretary at the church, said some people returned to the church for a luncheon after the burial but couldn't leave until after 2 p.m.

Zeender locked down the church because she heard that the armed suspect had not been caught.

A ringing telephone woke Jerome Wheeler just after 1 p.m. Monday. His supervisor was on the line and he sounded frantic.

At first, Wheeler couldn't make sense of the call -- it was too early to get a call from work. His shift at Jim's Liquors didn't start until 3 p.m.

Then he heard of the attempted robbery.

"I couldn't believe it," Wheeler said. "I ran down as fast as I could, in less than five minutes, but the police had the whole place blocked off."

Wheeler, 21, stocked shelves and worked the register at the liquor store for the past two years.

Aside from the pay, Wheeler will miss the relaxed atmosphere at the store.

"I just really enjoyed that job," Wheeler said. "It was nice having their trust."

Dawn Duncan had just returned to her job at Soft Images hair salon after buying a Sprite and a bag of Doritos at the liquor store when she heard yelling "that there were police there with guns set up."

Duncan, along with her co-workers and the customers, remained inside the store until police told them to leave.

"They started beating on the window, telling us to get out, that there was a fire," said Rebecca Stanford, a hairdresser at Soft Images.

Everyone ran out the front door. Duncan and Stanford, along with their co-worker Lauren White, ran across the street and took refuge in a doctor's office.

Gricelda Morales was working at the Quizno's restaurant in the lower level of the shopping center when a police officer came into the store at about 1:30 p.m. and told everyone to stay inside and keep the door closed.

Morales said about 15 customers and three employees, including herself, were in the store at the time.

Later, police came back to tell them to leave the building, she said.

"They didn't say anything. When we (got) out we saw the ... smoke on the building," she said. "I was scared. I just kept walking."

Morales stood in disbelief, shaking and crying as firefighters sprayed down the building.

"I worked there for four years," she said. "It's terrible."

Nicole Ohanian, director of La Petite Day Care Center, also locked down the center shortly after the holdup to ensure the children's safety. The children at the center range in age from 6 weeks to 12 years old.

Because of the cold weather, everyone was already indoors and the day's schedule continued as usual, she said. Many of the children's parents work in the area and called to ask what was going on, she said.

"Everybody was cool, calm and collected," Ohanian said. "We go over procedures with our staff about what lockdown is so everybody knew what to do."

Police detoured traffic away from the shopping center to protect drivers from stray bullets.

Danielle Poe, 26, of Westminster, was rerouted into the Hampton Inn parking lot on her way to work at Plastic Surgery One in Rose Hill Plaza, across Opossumtown Pike from the Antietam Village Shopping Center.

Before the fire started, she said she saw police crouched behind cars with guns drawn.

Poe saw two people, a man and a woman, run out of the liquor store. Police put their arms around the two and took them into the medical center in the same building, she said.

She said she didn't see any police go into or come out of the store, and she didn't see police shoot or throw anything into the store.

"About 30 seconds later, I saw red flames inside the liquor store before the glass blasted out of the window," Poe said. "I have no idea what caused it."

Flames spread

In parking lots behind the Hampton Inn and American Legion Post No. 11 shortly after 2 p.m., dozens of spectators gawked at the billowing fire.

The combination of the wood shopping center and large amounts of alcohol in the liquor store created a volatile burning environment, said volunteer firefighter Chris Orrison, who was in the crowd.

"With that amount of alcohol it probably wouldn't take more than a matter of minutes to take the whole building down," said Orrison, a member of United Steam Fire Engine Company No. 3 in Frederick . He was off duty Monday and unable to respond to the fire.

Fire burning on both the upper and lower levels of the shopping center also likely complicated fire extinguishing, he said, burning out the building's support structure and making its integrity questionable for firefighters responding.

"You can't send people into the building," Orrison said. "It's life before property."

The day care center was taken off lock down just before 4:30 p.m.

Terry Dashbach, owner of Mountain Village Gifts, saw several women come out of the hair salon crying. Even though the basic structure of the shopping center is brick, she was able to see daylight through the stores.

"I feel terrible for the liquor store and all the people who work up there," Dashbach said. "They'll all be out of jobs."

Douglas remembered

Bradley Ambush, 27, said he had known Douglas for about five or six years.

The two lived in the same neighborhood. Ambush described Douglas as a quiet person. They would occasionally see each other in the neighborhood or at the mall.

"He was cool but I don't know why he did this," he said as he stood and watched the smoldering building from Taney Avenue late in the afternoon.

Edried Spencer, 17, also knew Douglas. He said Douglas, who was originally from Washington, was a quiet person who kept to himself.

Douglas would often spend time at Spencer's home with Spencer and his mother, Lacy Spencer-Kebbeh. Douglas visited Spencer when he worked at Giant Eagle, he said.

Spencer said he was sleeping when he heard word of the fire and ran down to Antietam Village Shopping Center to see what was going on.

"I wasn't going to think that (Douglas) was going to bug out or anything ... so this is shocking," he said.

A woman many in the crowd identified as Douglas' mother declined comment.

Disney dazed

Disney, 28, paced on the sidewalk near Roy Rogers across the street from the fire about 3 p.m. His eyebrows dug a furrow into his forehead, his eyes distant.

Dozens of people wandered nearby, slipping on gray ice that choked sidewalks. Smoke stung their eyes and clung to their clothes, as they stared at the burning shopping center.

Disney recalled Douglas as a good friend, but the crease in his forehead deepened.

"He was a good guy," Disney said. "But, I don't really want to talk about this right now."

-- Staff writers Katie Leslie, Alison Walker-Baird, Sonia Boin, Comfort Dorn and Sarah Brietenbach contributed to this story