The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Four dead in US shooting
Incident: Death toll includes female suspect
A shooting at a Maryland warehouse has claimed four lives, including a female suspect who shot herself in the head, authorities said.
The suspect was a 26-year-old temporary employee at the Rite Aid distribution centre in north-eastern Maryland, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told a news conference.
She had been taken into custody in critical condition that morning.
Three other wounded people were being treated at a hospital.
It appears only one weapon, a handgun, was used and no shots were fired by responding law enforcement officers, Mr Gahler said.
Krystal Watson, 33, said her husband, Eric, works at the facility and told her that the shooter was a female co-worker.
Ms Watson said her husband told her that the woman had been arguing with somebody else near a time clock after a “Town Hall meeting”.
“And she went off,” she said.
Ms Watson said her husband told her the shooting started in a break room.
“She didn’t have a particular target. She was just shooting,” she said as she drove away from a fire station where relatives tried to reunite with loved ones.
A Baltimore hospital said it had received four patients with gunshot wounds from the shooting.
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre spokeswoman Monica Stone said that she was unable to provide details about the patients’ conditions.
Mr Gahler said the call about shots fired came in from the Rite Aid distribution centre 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 centre, says he helped tend to a wounded man.
Mr Carre locked the doors of his workplace after the injured man came hobbling in, bleeding from his leg.
A law enforcement official said authorities were working to clear the facility.
Christie Hopkins of Harford County sheriff ’s office said: “At this time, we are confident that the suspect acted alone. We do not believe there is any further threat to the community.”