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Employee Kills Three, Then Herself, at Rite Aid Facility in Maryland, Officials Say

Federal agents responded on Thursday to the scene of a shooting at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Md.Credit...Scott Serio/EPA, via Shutterstock

A 26-year-old woman opened fire at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Md., on Thursday morning, the authorities said, killing three people and wounding several others in what was the nation’s third shooting at a workplace in less than 24 hours.

The assailant, Snochia Moseley, a temporary employee at the facility, shot herself and died at a hospital, Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler of Harford County, Md., said at a news briefing. Ms. Moseley, whose last known address was in Baltimore County, had reported for work as usual before carrying out the attack with a single weapon, a Glock 9-millimeter handgun.

“We believe the shooting incident began outside and then moved into the front of the building,” Sheriff Gahler said, adding that the investigation was still preliminary.

Two of the victims died at the scene, while another died at a hospital, he said. Three people were wounded and are expected to survive. Sheriff Gahler did not identify the victims.

Rite Aid employs nearly 1,000 people at the distribution center, where products are received from manufacturers and vendors and processed for delivery to stores, according to Susan Henderson, a company spokeswoman. The shooting occurred at the Liberty support facility on the distribution center’s campus.

The authorities spent the hours after the shooting searching and clearing the 210,000-square-foot distribution center, prolonging the investigation, Sheriff Gahler said.

Steffon Williams, who works for a food distribution company next door, said that he did not hear the shots but that he was outside his building on a cigarette break when teams of law enforcement officers arrived.

“They told us to go inside and secured the building and locked it down,” said Mr. Williams, 25. “We were told there was an active shooter situation going on in the building next door and that we should stay inside and await further instructions.”

At an intersection outside Enterprise Business Park, where the distribution center is located, police kept reporters and photographers away from the scene of the shooting as local traffic backed up along a two-lane road bordered by suburban homes and a graveyard.

Early in the morning, Alexi Scharmann told WBAL-TV, an NBC affiliate, that her mother, who works at the Liberty facility, had texted Ms. Scharmann to let her know that there was a shooting in the building.

“I am hiding,” her mother said. “I love you. Be good and take care of daddy and the pets if something should happen.”

A screenshot of the text messages, which Ms. Scharmann said she had received at about 9:30 a.m., spread quickly online. Near the end of the interview, she discovered that her mother had made it out safely.

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said in a tweet that he was “wholeheartedly grateful” for the emergency officials who responded to the shooting.

“The First Lady and I are grieving for the loss of life in today’s shooting in Harford County, and praying that those who were injured fully recover,” he said.

Rite Aid said in a statement that it was “deeply saddened by the events that transpired this morning.” The company said the facility is closed and grief counselors are available for employees who were affected.

The attack in Aberdeen, just over 30 miles northeast of Baltimore, followed two workplace shootings that took place on Wednesday. A man opened fire at the software company where he worked in Middleton, Wis., injuring several people before he was killed by the police. Later that day, another man walked into a municipal building south of Pittsburgh and shot four people before killing himself.

“No matter where you work, learn, play, or live — you have a right to feel safe, and I’m horrified that that’s no longer the reality in America,” said Gabrielle Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman turned gun control advocate who was shot in the head while on the job in 2011.

The authorities received reports of shots fired at the distribution center at 9:06 a.m. and were on the scene within five minutes, the sheriff’s office said. The Maryland State Police and several federal agencies assisted in the response, including the F.B.I., Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The shooting was one of several to take place in Maryland this year. In March, a high school student in Great Mills, Md., killed a former girlfriend and injured another student before killing himself. In June, a gunman killed five people in a shooting in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md.

Jon Hurdle contributed reporting from Aberdeen, Md.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: Woman Kills 3 Co-Workers, Then Herself, at Warehouse. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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