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Shooting suspect takes life

UPDATE 1 p.m.

An employee at a Rite Aid warehouse opened fire at work Thursday, killing three people before taking her own life, authorities said. Several other people were wounded.

The suspect was a 26-year-old temporary employee at the Rite Aid distribution centre in northeastern Maryland, 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.

It appears only one weapon, a handgun, was used and no shots were fired by responding law enforcement officers, Gahler said.

Krystal Watson, 33, said her husband, Eric, works at the facility and told her told her that the suspect had been arguing with somebody else near a time clock after a "Town Hall meeting."

"And she went off," she said.

Watson said her husband told her the shooting started in a break room.

"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.

Area hospitals reported receiving five patients from the incident.

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore said it was treating four patients with gunshot wounds. Two were in stable condition and two who were seriously injured.

A spokesman for a health system that includes Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, said one patient was being treated there. Christiana Care Health System spokesman Hiran Ratnayake said the person was in serious condition.

Gahler said the call about shots fired came in at about 9:06 a.m. and deputies and other officers were on the scene in just over five minutes.


UPDATE 11:45 a.m.

Three people were killed Thursday morning in a shooting at a Rite Aid distribution centre in northeast Maryland, officials said.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the shooting stressed that the number of dead is based on preliminary information. The official wasn't authorized to discuss details by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

A suspect was taken into custody and was in critical condition, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told a news conference.

It appears only one weapon, a handgun, was used and no shots were fired by responding law enforcement officers, Gahler said. He also said multiple people had been killed and wounded in the shooting, without giving any other details on casualties.

A Baltimore hospital said it had received four patients with gunshot wounds from the shooting. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center spokeswoman Monica Stone said in an email Thursday that she was unable to provide details about the patients' conditions.

Gahler said the call about shots fired came in from the Rite Aid distribution centre at about 9:06 a.m. and deputies and other officers were on the scene in just over five minutes.

"We are so preliminary in this investigation," Gahler said. "It's so important that we deal in facts." He said authorities don't want to "make it worse" for the families involved by giving out incorrect information.

Mike Carre, an employee of a furniture logistics operation next to the distribution centre where the violence erupted, says 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.


UPDATE 9:50 a.m.

Three people were killed Thursday morning in a shooting at a Rite Aid distribution centre in northeast Maryland, officials said.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the shooting stressed that the number of dead is based on preliminary information. The official wasn't authorized to discuss details by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

A suspect was taken into custody and was in critical condition, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told a news conference.

It appears there was only one weapon, a handgun, that was used and there were no shots fired by responding law enforcement officers, Gahler said. Gahler also said multiple people had been killed and wounded in the shooting, without giving any other details on casualties.

Gahler said the call about shots fired came in from the Rite Aid distribution centre at about 9:06 a.m. and deputies and other officers were on the scene in just over five minutes.

"We are so preliminary in this investigation," Gahler said. "It's so important that we deal in facts." He said authorities don't want to "make it worse" for the families involved by giving out incorrect information.

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 described the Aberdeen incident as an "active shooter situation" and said its Baltimore field office was assisting.


ORIGINAL 7:38 a.m.

Authorities say multiple people have been shot in northeast Maryland in what the FBI is describing as an "active shooter situation."

The Harford County Sheriff's Office tweeted that there was a shooting Thursday morning in the Perryman area that involves "multiple victims." They warn that the situation is still fluid and ask people to avoid the area.

The FBI's Baltimore field office tweets that it is responding and assisting the sheriff's office with an active shooter situation. The Baltimore field division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tweets that its special agents are responding too.



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