ABDERDEEN: A shooting at a Maryland warehouse claimed four lives on Thursday, including a female suspect who shot herself in the head. . Several other people were wounded.

The suspect was a 26-year-old temporary employee at an aid distribution centre in north-eastern Maryland.

She had been taken into custody in critical condition. Her name was not immediately released.

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.

Krystal Watson, 33, said her husband, Eric, works at the facility and told her that the shooter was a female co-worker. 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.

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.

“She didn’t aim. She just shot,” Watson said.

A Baltimore hospital said it had received four patients with gunshot wounds from the shooting.

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.

At a nearby fire station, family members were waiting to be reunited with loved ones. Police blocked off the road outside, but were waving in cars driven by people who said they were there to meet up with people who were at the distribution centre.

Reggie Rodgriguez’s mother works at the distribution centre. His wife had tried calling her numerous times, but got no answer.

“I was calling her all morning. It went to voicemail because they keep their phones in lockers,” said Kelly Rodriguez, 40.

When they finally reached his mother in the afternoon, Reggie Rodriguez said: “That’s all I wanted to do: Hear her voice.”

His mother was uninjured.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2018