A man was shot and killed Friday afternoon across the street from an elementary school in the Capitol Hill area of Northeast Washington, D.C. police said.
The shooting occurred at 3:35 p.m. in the 600 block of Morris Place NE, said Officer Hugh Carew, a police spokesman. No motive was known for the attack.
Neighbors said the victim, believed to be in his 20s, was shot in front of a row house on the south side of Morris Place.
The one-block street, about a mile from the Capitol, is largely gentrified but is not completely free of loitering, neighbors said.
The victim was found across the street from Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School. According to the school’s Web site, classes end at 3:15 p.m. But neighbors said children were on the playground when the shooting occurred.
A parent said the children were nearer the G Street side of the school grounds and did not see anything. But, she said, “they heard it.” School staff members brought the children indoors quickly and locked the building, she said. She said “multiple shots” were fired, and called the incident “absolutely concerning.”
Other neighbors said the shots may have been fired from a vehicle or by someone who left in one.
“This is an unusual event,” said Carl Schmitt, another resident of the area, which is just south of rapidly redeveloping H Street NE.