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Maryland shooting: at least three reported dead at warehouse complex Maryland shooting: four dead, including suspect, at warehouse complex
(about 4 hours later)
Three people have been reported killed in a shooting on Thursday morning in Maryland. An employee at a warehouse in north-eastern Maryland opened fire at work on Thursday, killing three people before taking her own life, authorities said. Several other people were wounded.
The FBI described an “active shooter situation” at a pharmacy distribution center near Aberdeen, in Harford county, to the north-east of Baltimore, and said its Baltimore field office was assisting. The suspect is a 26-year-old temporary employee at the Rite Aid distribution center, the Harford county sheriff, Jeffrey Gahler, told a news conference. She had been taken into custody in critical condition that morning. Her name was not immediately released.
The Harford county sheriff’s office tweeted that the shooting involved “multiple victims” and warned early on Thursday that the situation was still fluid. The public was urged to avoid the area. It appears only one weapon, a handgun, was used and no shots were fired by responding law enforcement officers, Gahler said.
Larry Hogan, Maryland’s governor, said his office was monitoring the situation and that the state stands ready to offer any support. Krystal Watson, 33, said her husband, Eric, works at the facility and told her that the suspect had been arguing with somebody else after a “town hall meeting”.
There were local reports of a female suspect taken into custody. “And she went off,” she said.
Alexie Scharmann, an Aberdeen resident, told local NBC TV station WBAL in a phone interview that her mother was inside the Rite Aid warehouse where the shooting took place, around 9am. Watson said her husband told her the shooting started in a break room.
She said her mother sent her a text message saying there was a shooter in the building and that she was hiding. “She didn’t have a particular target. She was just shooting,” Watson said as she drove away from a fire station where relatives tried to reunite with loved ones. “She didn’t aim. She just shot,” Watson said.
“That’s the last thing I heard from her,” Scharmann told the station. Area hospitals reported receiving five patients from the incident.
She added, “I have no idea what’s going on. That’s the only thing I can do is watch the news and pray.” She later found out her mother was safe. Johns Hopkins Bayview medical center in Baltimore said it was treating four patients with gunshot wounds. Two were in stable condition and two were seriously injured.
The shooting comes a day after separate mass shootings in two states. Three people were wounded and a fourth grazed by a bullet when a gunman, who was killed by police, opened fire at a software company in Wisconsin. Hours later in western Pennsylvania, a gunman wounded four people at a court building before being killed by police. A spokesman for a health system that includes Christiana hospital in Newark, Delaware, said one patient was being treated there. A Christiana Care Health System spokesman, Hiran Ratnayake, said the person was in serious condition.
More details soon Gahler said the call about shots fired came in at about 9.06am and deputies and other officers were on the scene in just over five minutes.
Mike Carre, an employee of a furniture logistics operation next to the distribution center, said he helped tend to a wounded man.
Carre locked the doors of his workplace after the injured man came hobbling in, bleeding from his leg. He called 911 from a bathroom before helping colleagues wrap the man’s blood-soaked jeans above his injury to cut off blood flow.
Carre said the man told him the shooter “just came in in a bad mood this morning. He said she’s usually nice. But today, I guess it wasn’t her day. She just came in to pick a fight with someone.
“She pulled out a gun and she just started shooting at her co-workers.”
At a nearby fire station, family members were waiting to be reunited with loved ones. Police blocked off the road outside but were waving in cars driven by people who said they were there to meet up with people who were at the distribution center.
Reggie Rodriguez’s mother works at the distribution center. His wife had tried calling her numerous times but got no answer.
“I was calling her all morning. It went to voicemail because they keep their phones in lockers,” said Kelly Rodriguez, 40.
When they finally reached his mother on Thursday afternoon, Reggie Rodriguez said, “that’s all I wanted to do: hear her voice”. His mother was uninjured. He said she sounded relieved the crisis was over.
A law enforcement official had earlier said authorities were working their way through the distribution center to clear the facility.
“We obviously need to methodically go through the entire complex, ensure there are no other victims inside, ensure that there is no one that was hiding from violence and ensure that there were no other suspects,” said Christie Hopkins, communications director for the sheriff’s office.
“At this time, we are confident that the suspect acted alone. And that person is in custody. We do not believe there is any further threat to the community now, but we still have to completely clear that building.”
The attack came nearly three months after a man armed with a shotgun attacked a newspaper office in Annapolis, Maryland, killing five staff members. Authorities accused Jarrod W Ramos of attacking the Capital Gazette because of a longstanding grudge against the paper.
The FBI said its Baltimore field office was assisting with the Aberdeen incident. In a tweet, Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, said his office was monitoring the situation in Aberdeen and that the state stands ready to offer any support.
Susan Henderson, spokeswoman for the drugstore chain Rite Aid, described the warehouse as a support facility adjacent to a larger building.
The Harford county executive, Barry Glassman, said that unfortunately, incidents like this are “becoming a too-often occurrence not only in Harford county but in the country”.
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