In the late summer of 2018, a young woman named Hayleen Fernandez Reyes, aged 21, was filled with the hope of building a new life. Having moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic just five months prior, she had recently secured a job at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Maryland. Her aspirations were bright; she dreamed of one day becoming a professional singer.
Living with her father and her one-year-old daughter, she had just begun her third day at her new job, a step toward realizing her American dream.
Her life was tragically cut short on a Thursday morning in September when a temporary employee at the facility, 26-year-old Snochia Moseley, opened fire on her colleagues. Earlier that morning, Moseley had become involved in a minor dispute with other workers. She left the warehouse and returned a short time later, armed with a handgun she had legally purchased. Outside the building, she began her deadly assault before moving inside, where she continued to shoot at her coworkers.
Hayleen Fernandez Reyes was among the three people fatally shot by Moseley. Two other employees, Sunday Aguda and Brindra Giri, also lost their lives, and three others were wounded but survived. The attack ended when Snochia Moseley turned the gun on herself, taking her own life at the scene. Because the perpetrator died by suicide, there were no arrests or subsequent trial. The incident was a devastating act of workplace violence that left a community in mourning and a family grieving the sudden and senseless loss of a young woman who had just begun to write her own story.
