Shooting in Baltimore Marks Third US Workplace Shooting in 24 Hours

Aberdeen, MD (WorkersCompensation.com) – A woman who entered a Rite Aid distribution center and killed three people before turning her gun on herself Thursday marked the third workplace shooting in America in 24 hours.

Authorities said Snochi Moseley, 26, entered the distribution center where she worked as a temporary employee before opening fire outside of the building and then going into the building to continue her rampage. In all, authorities said, Moseley shot seven people, killing three and hospitalizing three others.

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said Moseley then turned the gun on herself and shot herself in the head. Officers were able to take her into custody, but she later died at the hospital she was taken to for her injuries. Officials described her as a disgruntled employee who had at some point worked as a security guard at the facility.

Susan Henderson, a spokeswoman with Rite Aid, said the distribution center employs an estimated 1,000 people.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the incident is one in a long line of shootings in the area over the course of the past year, and one of three workplace shootings in the last 24 hours across the country.

Throughout the Baltimore, MD area, gun violence in the workplace has taken more than 12 lives in the past year and a half.

In late June, a gunman stormed the Capital-Gazette newspapers in Annapolis and killed five employees there.

In March, a high school student in the area died, and another was injured, when a third teen shot them in the hallway of St. Mary’s County School.

In November 2017, one man was killed in Northwest Baltimore and two others wounded in an attack on an auto repair shop.

In October 2017, Radee Prince shot five people, three of whom died, at his former workplace, Advanced Granite Solutions in Edgewood, MD.

And in February 2016, two Harford County sheriff’s deputies died after being shot in an Abingdon business park in a confrontation in a Panera Bread restaurant. The shooter was also killed in that incident.

Similar incidents have happened across the country. In the past 24 hours, it has happened three times.

Prior to Thursday’s incident in Aberdeen, on Sept. 19, in Middleton, WI, a shooter opened fire on his coworkers at the software firm he worked at. The shooter injured three before being shot by police. He later died of his wounds that resulted from that gun fight.

Later in the day police killed a gunman who wounded four people when he opened fire at a municipal building in Masontown Borough, PA. Officials said the gunman had a restraining order against him as a result of a domestic matter and was scheduled to appear in court, when he started shooting. Police responded to the call and engaged in a gun fight with the shooter and he was killed.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of Sept. 20, there have been 262 incidents of mass shootings in the US this year. In 2017, there was a total of 346 mass shootings. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2018, that there were 500 workplace homicides in 2016, 10 percent of all fatal workplace incidents. 

The Bureau’s Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows that number was up from 417 in 2015 and down from 518 workplace homicides in 2010. Shootings accounted for 78 percent of workplace homicides in 2010, with 77, or 15 percent, of those deaths involving multiple fatalities — including 69 homicides and 8 assailant suicides, all of whom were in work status at the time of the incident, the Bureau said. 

More than four-fifths of workplace homicides by shooting in 2010 occurred in the private sector, records show. Of the 405 workplace shooting victims in 2010, 110, or 27 percent, were in the retail industry.

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