Four people, including the shooter, were killed when a 26-year-old woman opened fire Thursday morning at the Rite Aid distribution center in Harford County, Maryland, where she worked, authorities confirmed.
An additional three people were injured and are expected to survive, police said.
The suspect, who has been identified as Snochia Moseley, was taken to an area hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her head, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said during a press conference. She died after arriving at the hospital in critical condition.
No shots were fired by any law enforcement officials, the sheriff said.
Moseley was a temporary employee at the facility and reported to work as usual Thursday morning, carrying a 9mm Glock handgun registered in her name and “multiple” magazines, according to Gahler. She opened fire both inside and outside the facility around 9 a.m. Eastern time.
Her motivation is not yet known, but Gahler noted that there was no additional threat to the community. She was a resident of Baltimore County.
Authorities responded at 9:09 a.m. Eastern Time to the intersection of Spesutia and Perryman Roads in Perryman, Maryland, a semirural spot in a small town around 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.
The shooting took place on a three-building campus where Rite Aid employs around 1,300 people, Harford County spokeswoman Cindy Mumby told HuffPost. Mumby did not know how many employees were present at the time of the shooting.
Four injured people were transported to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore with gunshot wounds needing urgent attention. Trauma director Raymond Fang could not comment on their identities.
The FBI, the Maryland State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the scene.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said earlier his office was “closely monitoring” the incident, posting on his official Twitter page that “the State stands ready to offer any support” as the situation unfolded.
Krystal Watson, 33, told local news outlet WSAZ3 that her husband, Eric, was at the facility during the shooting.
“She didn’t aim. She just shot,” Watson said.
Andre Cedeno, 30, told The Baltimore Sun that his sister, Lela, was also inside the Rite Aid facility during the shooting and hid in a bathroom.
“She had a panic,” he told the paper. “It’s crazy that people don’t respect life.”
Rite Aid spokesman Pete Strella said in a statement that those at the company felt “deeply saddened” by the events and would make grief counselors available to employees “as long as they are needed.”
A family reunification center has been set up at the Level Volunteer Fire House in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Authorities are asking people to otherwise avoid the area.
Harford County saw another mass shooting in October 2017, when a man shot and killed three people and wounded several others at the home remodeling business where he worked in Edgewood, Maryland.
Thursday’s incident also marked the nation’s third mass shooting in the past 24 hours. A gunman in Pennsylvania shot and wounded four people before police shot and killed him Wednesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, a Wisconsin man shot three of his co-workers and died at a hospital.
Maryland has relatively strict gun laws compared to other states. Firearms dealers are required to conduct background checks on customers through state police, according to the Giffords Law Center To Prevent Gun Violence. Handgun owners must also have completed a firearms safety course within the last three years and obtain a license.
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