An afternoon shooting on Monday caused a major police investigation and a temporary lockdown of an elementary school.
The incident occurred on April 18, around 12:30 p.m. Two black men entered a house in the 3800 block of Mariposa Place in the Hybla Valley area. They shot a man in his 20s several times in the upper body and took off.
The victim was taken to INOVA Fairfax Hospital; he remains in the hospital in critical condition.
Capt. Mike Kline, commander, Mount Vernon District Station, said, “The suspect is still at large. Our detectives are aggressively following up.”
He also said that while it wasn’t a domestic related issue, they did not believe that the shooting was a random event and think that the suspect and victim are connected. He could not relate any further details since the investigation is ongoing.
“Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School was locked down for about an hour, because of their proximity of the condos in Sequoyah — it backs up to a fence of the school,” Kline said. “The suspect was traveling by foot in direction of the school so we opted to have the school locked down until we were certain that the perpetrator was out of the area.”
Reginald Romaine, principal at Mount Vernon Woods, said, “The police department was very cooperative and supportive. They informed me of an emergency situation very close to the school and requested to have all students taken inside. We were requested to go to immediate exterior lockdown. An officer came later to inform me of the situation and stated that the department would inform me when it was safe to rescind the lockdown.”
As more information becomes available it will be provided. Anyone with any information about this incident or these suspects is asked to call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477) or the police non-emergency number at 703-691-2131.