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Charon Baines, a Rite Aid employee, remembers being at work when colleagues started running around his building, saying they were fleeing shots.
As his building was locked, he and other people searched for information about what was happening.
Was there really a shot? How many people were injured? Were they still in danger?
Baines recounted this uncertainty and fear on Friday night at a vigil organized by Harford County religious leaders in a roadside church of the Rite Aid distribution center where, one day, a temporary employee killed three people and wounded three others before turning the weapon on itself.
"It's really scary. We have never encountered anything like this in this community before, "said Baines, 42, of Aberdeen, who said he worked for 12 years at the distribution center. "Everyone is scared. Even though this was not the case in our building, it happened in a building where I normally go. "
About 40 people gathered for the vigil, held at the United Cranberry United Methodist Church, lighting candles and chanting: "Lord, listen to my prayer."
A small group of participants were Rite Aid employees, some of whom had kissed in tears.
"Families are in mourning. Our community is shaken. There are many questions and not many answers, "said Pastor Tiffany Patterson, pastor of the church.
The vigil brought together county religious leaders, who said that healing would come through solidarity and compassion.
"Days like this, we come together in one family, as human beings. That's what counts in days like this, "said Imam Abdullah Dibba of the Muslim Admadiyyah community.
"Healing is a process," said Aberdeen Councilman Melvin Taylor, bishop of an Aberdeen church. "We know that in the middle of all this, in one way or another, something good can come out of it."
Viviana Carey and Jessica Spore, who like Baines worked in a separate building at the time of filming, recalled the uncertainty and said it needed hours to convey information to employees.
They are still shaken.
"You are almost paranoid. It's not something you can really explain, "said Spore. "I have the impression of living outside the body, just looking at the world, I do not know exactly what's going on."
Spore, who worked for three years at the distribution center, says he is uncomfortable going back to work. Community support has been helpful.
"I did not feel so alone anymore," she said.
Carey said the location has many employees "but we are all a big family".
Stakeholders spoke of raising funds to help the filming survivors, noting that some are breadwinners.
"We are 'Harford Strong' and we will all overcome this situation," said Angela Rose, president of the Harford County Chamber of Commerce.
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