DANVILLE — Someone shot and killed a Geisinger employee walking to her car in the Geisinger employee parking lot early Friday evening, said Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn.

As of Friday night, police hadn’t caught the person who killed the woman, who Lynn said was in her 40s.

But he also said the police did not suspect the gunman had remained in or near the hospital.

The shooting appeared to have happened around 5 p.m., Lynn said, in a parking lot north of the main hospital building and Red Lane and near the Life Flight hangar.

While no one directly witnessed the shooting, Lynn said  there were people in the vicinity who “heard things” and called 9-1-1. He declined to say if there were multiple gunshots or what kind of weapon was used.

Police from Montour and Columbia counties rushed to the hospital on Friday night, shutting down Red Lane in the area of the parking lot.

Geisinger went into lockdown after the shooting. By 6 p.m. it was again accepting patients in its emergency room, but security personnel were escorting them to and from their vehicles, said Geisinger Chief Nursing Officer Crystal Muthler.

Officers from the major crime unit of the State Police at Milton were heading the investigation Friday night, and had called in a forensics team from the Montoursville barracks.

Lynn said police were reviewing security camera footage. They planned to continue processing the parking lot through Friday night.

He did not release the identity of the victim, saying police were still working on contacting her family.

The shooting hit GMC staff hard, Lynn said.

“This is a big family here. We need to come together to support them and their coworkers," Lynn said.

Muthler said Geisinger planned to offer counseling to its employees.