Eight persons, including 12-year-old girl shot at in US shooting; manhunt launched for suspect

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In another incident of mass shooting in the United States, a gunman opened fire at a southeast suburb of Washington D.C. on Friday night (local time), reported The US Sun. Initial reports stated that eight persons, including a 12-year-old girl were shot at.

DC Police Department said that a black sedan, possibly a Mercedes, drove through the neighbourhood and opened fire on a group of men indiscriminately, WUSA reported.

The first calls about the shooting came in just after 10 pm, according to Officer Hugh Carew with the Metropolitan Police Department.

Police initially said that seven people were shot on a residential street in the Congress Heights neighbourhood. The number of victims later increased to eight.

Seven men were shot on Lebaum Street, Assistant Chief of Patrol Services South Andre Wright told WUSA9.

Nearby in the 2900 block of 2nd Street, a 12-year-old girl was shot. Her injuries weren't life-threatening.

The Police Department believe the two shootings to be related.

Multiple shell casings were found on the ground and cops are investigating two crime scenes. A few blocks away, a 12-year-old girl was shot and police believe the two instances of gunfire are related.

The condition of all of the victims wasn't immediately available but at least one person was critically wounded.

DC Fire and EMS took four people to the hospital and other victims were being taken to trauma centres, police said.

Assistant Chief Andre Wright provides an update on the multiple people shot in the 500 block of Lebaum St SE and the 2900 block of 2nd St SE.

"To make it easier for everybody to follow the story. There are going to be two scenes involved here. One is the 500 block of Lebanon Street Southeast. This will be the primary scene and then the secondary scene. 2000 block of Second Street Southeast. And the information that I'm about to give is very preliminary," said Wright.

He further stated that the investigations are on and multiple victims are involved and detectives and patrol officers are out knocking on doors. There will be a subsequent follow-up as the information unfolds.

He said, "We discovered that there were multiple adult males suffering from gunshot wounds. Thankfully, none of them are life-threatening, most of them self-transported when we got on the scene. So there was some chaos because of the number of victims and loved ones. Also, while we were on this scene, we also received a call on the 29 O'Block of Second Street. Upon arriving on that scene, we discovered that there was a twelve-year-old female little girl who would also receive a gunshot wound to her lower extremities. Thank God she's also stable and non-life threatening."

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