Shots Fired at Men Near Car; One Slain

Police Look for Robbery Suspects

Police are searching for three men after a College Park man was killed and another man wounded by gunfire early yesterday in a robbery as they got out of a car behind a Takoma Park apartment building.

Junior R. Liriano, 39, died after the 12:40 a.m. shooting. An unidentified companion was in serious condition after surgery at Washington Hospital Center, Takoma Park police spokeswoman Catherine Plevy said. A third man was assaulted but not shot.

Plevy said the men were accosted as they emerged from a parked car behind the Takoma Overlook apartments at 7333 New Hampshire Ave.

"Three guys in a car were getting out, and three suspects opened fire on them," she said. "I don't know the motive except it was an apparent robbery and property was taken."

Plevy said she did not know whether the victims live in the building, were going to visit someone or were "just hanging around" the complex, which sits behind Takoma Park Recreation Center on a bustling stretch of New Hampshire Avenue.

A tenant in the building, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety, said he was awakened by searchlights and helicopter noise and rousted from his bed by a knock at the door from police. He said officers were questioning everyone whose apartment windows face the rear parking lot of the white-brick building.

"Everybody here is scared right now," he said. "I have a son. I don't want to raise him here."

Some renters have moved out of the building because it is being converted to condominiums, leaving it partially empty, residents said. Hedy Tall, a tenant for eight years, said he could recall three shootings since he moved in but no fatalities.

"We have kids, bad kids," he said. "They don't live here, but they have friends here."

Plevy said that the three suspects were in their late teens or early 20s and that all the robbers carried handguns.