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Maryland warehouse shooting victim was a newlywed

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On the day he died, Sunday Aguda had a new job and new wife. They had been planning to celebrate his birthday, just three days away.

But he never reached 45 years old.

Thursday morning, Aguda went for his break outside a Rite Aid warehouse in Harford County, Md. He found himself in the path of a shooter.

“I want the world to know Sunday was [a] special person,” his wife, Aleina Scott, wrote in an email. “He was a great husband and father who will be greatly missed. When we lost him, he was doing what he always did, working hard to take care of his family.”

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Aguda, a native Nigerian, became the first of three workers killed, his family said, when the shooter stormed the warehouse near Aberdeen. After the assailant killed the other two victims, she turned the gun on herself.

Aguda had worked there only three weeks, his family said.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office identified the shooter as Snochia Moseley, a 26-year-old from Baltimore County and temporary employee at the Rite Aid distribution center.

“She was suffering from a mental illness and over the last two weeks had become increasingly agitated,” the sheriff’s office said.

Moseley’s handgun was purchased legally, officials said.

The first shots were fired about 9 a.m. Moseley shot Aguda outside, then went in firing, police said; wounding three people and killing Brindra Giri, 41, who’d arrived four months ago from Nepal; and Hayleen Reyes, 21, who came five months ago from the Dominican Republic.

Like the other victims, Aguda had come to the U.S. in search of a better life.

He and Scott married in February. They lived in a townhouse in Dundalk, outside Baltimore.

His mother-in-law, Darcel Hayes-Bridges, said she rushed down from her home in Lehigh Valley, Pa., when she heard of the shooting. Her daughter was devastated, she said outside the couple’s home.

“He was very well-loved,” Hayes-Bridges said.

She recalled meeting her daughter’s suitor for the first time, noting his cheerfulness and deep faith. Aguda would quote the Bible, particularly the Book of Proverbs.

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Hayes-Bridges had a firm message for her daughter. “I said, ‘I approve.’”

Prudente writes for the Baltimore Sun.

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