Snochia Moseley was only in her second week of work at a Rite Aid distribution center near Aberdeen when, yesterday morning, she opened fire, killing three.
The 26-year-old was hired part-time ahead of the holiday season, said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, and showed up for work at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday. At 7:21 a.m., she left the complex and drove back to her residence in White Marsh, where authorities believe she grabbed a Glock 17, handcuffs and pepper spray.
Over an hour later, she returned and sat parked in the parking lot for nearly 20 minutes. before returning inside.
She exited again at about 9:05 a.m. and can be seen in video pulling a hood over her head.
“And that’s when the shooting began,” said Gahler.
Moseley shot Sunday Aguda, a 45-year-old man from Baltimore County, in the parking lot, and then went back into the warehouse, where she continued firing, wounding five before she turned the gun on herself.
Aguda; Brindra Giri, a 41-year-old female from Baltimore County; and Hayleen Reyes, a 21-year-old female* from Baltimore City, died from their wounds. Three others victims survived.
Eyewitnesses told police Moseley’s first attempt at shooting herself only resulted in a graze wound, so she shot a second time. She later died at Johns Hopkins Bayview.
On Friday morning, at a press conference to announce more details about the mass shooting, Gahler said any attempts to make sense of this violent incident would prove fruitless.
“There’s still a lot of questions we don’t know, and frankly, when someone does something like this, that’s violence against other human beings, we’re never going to make sense of it or understand it fully,” he said.
Investigators learned of a workplace argument that occurred Wednesday when Moseley butted the line to clock in, but there were no other known disputes at the distribution center that “caused her this much agitation,” said Gahler.
Detectives searched Moseley’s residence and didn’t find any evidence related to the shooting, but they saw signs she was suffering from mental illness. Friends and family told police Moseley had become “increasingly agitated” in recent weeks, and that they were concerned.
Gahler said she had been diagnosed with a mental illness in 2016. Moseley was still able to legally purchase the handgun, which she bought in March, under state law. Previously, Moseley had worked as a security guard and had a valid Maryland handgun permit that expired in May, said Gahler. She was not working as security at the distribution center, however.
Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, a Republican, noted that mental illness had played a role in both the 2016 shooting of two Harford County sheriff’s deputies and the workplace shooting spree last year that started in Advanced Granite Solutions in Edgewood and ended in Delaware.
“As we look across the country, too, it’s kind of pervasive in a lot of communities, and you just don’t know when or where this could happen,” he said.
The county is working with the University of Maryland to open a 24-hour mental-health crisis center and launched a civility program to teach parents and family members about the characteristics of mental illness.
“We want to make sure that if we see someone that’s having struggles, that we can give them help as part of our efforts to stem the tide of violence,” he said.
Citing other mass shootings across the country, Glassman also suggested that gun laws allowing people with mental illnesses to purchase firearms need to be updated.
“I think that is something, definitely, that needs to be updated,” he said.
A fund for the victims has been set up through the Victoria Russell Foundation, and a candlelight vigil is planned at the Cranberry United Methodist Church in Aberdeen.
*Editor’s Note: The Harford County Sheriff’s initially announced Hayleen Reyes was 41. They corrected that to say she was 21.
