A woman on Thursday opened fire with a handgun at the warehouse where she worked in eastern Maryland, killing three people and wounding another three in the US’ latest mass shooting, police said.
The suspect — a 26-year-old identified as Snochia Moseley — died after shooting herself in the head, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler told reporters.
Gahler said that Moseley was a temporary employee at the distribution center for the Rite Aid drugstore chain in Aberdeen.
“We do not have a motive for this senseless crime,” he said, adding that terrorism did not appear likely.
He said the three wounded victims were hospitalized and were expected to survive.
He did not release the names of any of the victims pending notification of their families.
Mass shootings are common in the US, but the vast majority involve men and the Aberdeen incident is a rare mass shooting by a woman.
Moseley lived in Baltimore County and the handgun she used in the attack, a 9mm Glock, was registered under her name, Gahler said, adding that she was armed with one gun and several magazines.
He said the woman turned up for work at about 9am and the shooting began just minutes later.
People were shot both inside and outside the Rite Aid warehouse, Gahler said.
Police responded within five minutes to reports of gunfire, but no shots were fired by law enforcement, he added.
“We got completely bombarded by — I’m not exaggerating — 20 to 30 cops, and then ambulances and everything started pouring in,” a witness told WBAL-TV.
Andre Cedeno’s sister, Lea, was at the Rite Aid facility and he rushed there from his own workplace after he heard of the shooting, he told the Baltimore Sun.
“She had a panic,” Cedeno said, and hid in a bathroom. “It’s crazy that people don’t respect life.”
The incident is the latest in an epidemic of gun violence that has struck schools and workplaces across the US, where the right to bear arms is protected by the constitution.
However, attacks by women account for less than 5 percent of the total, law enforcement officials and academics said.
Thursday’s attack came five months after a female animal rights campaigner gunned down three people before killing herself at YouTube’s California headquarters.
Maryland made grim headlines around the world in June when five employees of the Capital-Gazette died after a shooter stormed their Annapolis newsroom.
The man police say is responsible had harassed newspaper employees for years over an article about criminal stalking charges against him.
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