A six-year-old girl was killed and five adults were seriously injured in a mass shooting in Washington D.C. late Friday night, according to police.
Executive Asst. Chief Ashan Benedict said in a video posted to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Twitter account that shots were fired around 11 p.m. in the area where Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Malcolm X Avenue intersect in the city’s southeast.
“(Police) didn’t receive a call, they actually heard the shots fired and responded,” he said. “They found several gunshot victims.”
The six-year-old girl was pronounced dead in hospital, Benedict said.
The adults, three males and two females, are in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, he added.
No suspect has been arrested. Police tweeted that they were looking for a vehicle that is “dark in colour.”
The girl’s death marks the District’s 102nd homicide of 2021. Homicides in the nation’s capital have been on the rise for the past four years, according to D.C. police data.
“Any shooting that takes place in the city is unacceptable,” Benedict said Friday. “We’re responding to too many calls of children being affected by gunfire so please, help us bring these shooters to justice.”