Sept. 20 -- A temporary employee at a Rite Aid distribution center in Maryland killed three co-workers and injured three others before killing herself Thursday morning, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said.
Gahler declined to release the names of any of the victims, saying families are still being notified of their deaths.
He identified the shooter as Snochia Moseley, 26. Police are serving warrants at her last known address, in Baltimore County, Gahler said.
The gun, a 9mm Glock, was registered and owned by the suspect, he said.
Employees were shot both inside and outside the distribution center in Perryman, an unincorporated area of the county near Aberdeen, Gahler said. The motive for the shooting is not yet known.
Gahler said law enforcement officials did not fire any shots.
Four people were taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center with gunshot wounds, said Dr. Raymond Fang, Bayview trauma medical director. One person was in serious condition at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del.
Dispatchers received a report of shots fired at the distribution center at 9:06 a.m., Gahler said, and just over five minutes later police were on the scene.
In addition to the Rite Aid warehouse, the business park’s tenants are Zenith Freight Lines, TruAire, the Clorox Company and Maines Paper & Food Service. Rite Aid employs 1,300 full-time employees and 300 temporary workers at the Aberdeen facility, according to Harford County spokeswoman Cindy Mumby.
Andre Cedeno, 30, said his sister, Lela, was at the Rite Aid center.
Andre Cedeno had rushed from his own workplace 25 minutes away to try to see his sister, who was in her second week on the job at the Rite Aid center. Cedeno said she told him she ran inside and hid in a bathroom.
“She had a panic,” Cedeno said. “It’s crazy that people don’t respect life,” he said.
The FBI Baltimore office and special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were also assisting in the investigation.
A reunification center has been set up at the Level Volunteer Fire Co. in Havre de Grace.
The shooting comes 11 months after a shooting at a kitchen countertop company in Edgewood, less than 10 miles away. Three were killed and two were injured in the October 2017 attack.
And, it is the third workplace shooting in the U.S. in the past 24 hours.
Four people were shot Wednesday morning at a software company, WTS Paradigm, in Middleton, Wis., by a 43-year-old co-worker, police said. The gunman was shot and killed by police. Three of the injured were in serious condition as of Thursday morning, one suffered a graze wound.
Then, Wednesday afternoon, four people including a police officer were shot after a man opened fire outside a judge’s office in a municipal building in Masontown, Pa. The suspect, Patrick Dowdell, 61, was shot and killed by police. Dowdell had a preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday on domestic charges of strangulation, aggravated assault and terroristic threats from an incident several weeks ago.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he was “closely monitoring” the situation. “Our prayers are with all those impacted, including our first responders. The State stands ready to offer any support,” he tweeted.
Church Creek Elementary School was placed on a modified lockdown.
In the aftermath of the shooting, anxious relatives streamed to a reunification center that was set up at the Level Volunteer Fire Co. in Havre de Grace.
When a bus pulled up with Rite Aid workers on board, there was joy from families standing outside. One woman ran forward with out stretched arms and shouted in glee as she recognized someone on the bus.
Reggie Rodriguez, 43, and his wife, Kelly, had waited all morning for word about his mother, a worker. The wait was excruciating, they said. Kelly started calling her cellphone at 10:30 am after hearing the news about the shooting. No answer.
“I kept calling over and over and over again,” Kelly said. Finally, after she and her husband had met in the reunification center she got an answer. She handed the phone to Reggie for a brief conversation.
“He just wanted to hear her voice,” Kelly said. Reggie said he didn’t even ask his mother if she had seen anything during the shooting. “It was a quick brief conversation,” Reggie said, adding how relieved he was.
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