More Details On Mental State Of Rite Aid Shooter Emerge

PERRYMAN, MD — The Perryman shooter was suffering from schizophrenia, according to new information coming out about Snochia Moseley. A motive for the deadly workplace shooting remains unclear.

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said shortly after the deadly confrontations that investigators had determined Moseley had been diagnosed with a mental illness and in March legally purchased the 9 mm Glock used in the shootings.

Moseley killed four people and injured three others at the Rite Aid distribution center off Perryman Road around 9 a.m. on Sept. 20.

Sunday Aguda, 45, Brindra Giri, 41 and Hayleen Reyes, 21, lost their lives, officials said. Moseley also died, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

This week more information came out about the specifics of the mental illness of the shooter, when a member of the sheriff's office spoke Monday at the Aberdeen City Council meeting.

Major William Davis of the Harford County Sheriff's Office said Moseley had schizophrenia and did not disclose that on her application for a firearm, The Aegis reported. Davis said that he thought everyone would agree that "somebody who has been diagnosed with acute schizophrenia should not be allowed to possess or purchase a weapon," according to the newspaper.

Under Maryland law, people with mental illness are not required to disclose that unless they have been institutionalized for at least 30 days for treatment of a mental disorder, have been found not criminally responsible or incompetent to stand trial due to a mental condition or have a history of violent behavior against themselves or others.

Here are the pertinent questions on the Maryland firearms application, and the choices are "Yes" or "No":

_{Screenshot from Maryland State Police firearms application.}

On Oct. 1, a bill known as the "Red Flag law" takes effect in Maryland, under which certain individuals — such as relatives, roommates, guardians, intimate partners or law enforcement officers — can ask a judge to order a person to surrender firearms temporarily if there are reasonable grounds to believe the person poses an "immediate and present danger of causing personal injury" to themselves or others.

Friends and family members said Moseley had become "increasingly agitated" in the two weeks before the shooting at Rite Aid, and they were concerned for her well-being, according to the Harford County sheriff. She had been diagnosed with a mental illness in 2016, he said.

A study published in the Annals of Epidemiology regarding mental illness and gun violence said that suicide accounts for more than half of all gun fatalities and "the vast majority of people with diagnosable serious psychiatric disorders, unless they also had a substance use disorder, did not engage in violent behavior."

"We have no evidence of drug or alcohol abuse," Cristie Hopkins, spokeswoman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office, told Patch on Friday. In addition, Hopkins said that the shooter was not transgender, as The Baltimore Sun had reported.

Firearm Application by Elizabeth Janney on Scribd

SEE ALSO: MD Mass Shooter: Victims Named, Motive Unclear

Main photo Police officers gather below crime scene tape in front of a Rite Aid distribution center where multiple people were killed and injured in a shooting on Sept. 20, 2018, near Aberdeen, Maryland. A woman opened fire at the business center killing three and wounding three others. The suspect died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)