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Police Identify Maryland Shooter As Woman, Say She Shot Herself

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Police confirmed Thursday the suspect in the Maryland workplace shooting that left three dead is a woman and that she shot herself twice.

Law enforcement officials believe the suspect killed three people and wounded two others at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Maryland, Thursday morning. The suspect reportedly shot herself twice and is alive, albeit hospitalized and in critical condition.

Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler confirmed during a press conference that the shooter used a single weapon and responding law enforcement officers did not fire any shots while making their way through the building and tending to the victims. It is unclear whether the suspect is an employee of Rite Aid.

“There is no additional threat to the community,” Gahler said.

Locals, many of whom reacted to the shooting with surprise, characterized the area as “calm” and “sleepy.”

“I, of course, thought it was far off or, that’s like down the road or something, right? No, it’s right outside. It’s right on the doorstep,” local Colleen Hendrickson said, according to CNN.

“It’s really just usually very calm, and this is the most chaotic I’ve ever seen it. It’s very scary when it’s just right there on your doorstep because you can see a billion news reports about shooters, about emergency instances, and it still doesn’t make it real to you,” she added.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI assisted local law enforcement in responding to the shooting. Local law enforcement’s investigation of the incident is currently in preliminary stages.

The shooting was the third mass shooting to have occurred within 24 hours, as a gunman wounded three people Wednesday at an office in Wisconsin while another gunman wounded four at a municipal center in Pennsylvania later that same day.