An 18-year-old high school student was shot in the leg and robbed while on her way to school Tuesday morning.
A masked gunman wearing a red jacket approached her about 8:30 a.m. in the 1400 block of Morris Road SE near the intersection of West Street SE and robbed her of her school bag, including her lunch and school books. During the course of the robbery, he shot her in the leg.
"He asked for the bag, and I was kind of slow to register, then he shot me and then he took the bag and ran," the victim said.
She was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shooter is still at large.
The victim is a straight-As student at Phelps Architectural, Construction and Engineering High School in Northeast, News4's Pat Collins reported. The school is about five miles away from the scene of the shooting.
The woman was on her way to a Metrobus stop when she was attacked. It wasn't even the closest stop to her house, Collins reported -- the victim was avoiding the stop across the street from her home because there had been robberies there recently.
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After she was shot, the victim ran home, where her mother called 911.
Local residents condemned the crime.
"You're going to shoot somebody for a bookbag? You're going to shoot somebody because they have on a certain jacket or pair of shoes? ...We've lost the value of life, and it's gone down to a number of dollars," a resident told News4's Megan McGrath. "People need to actually respect each other's property and their lives, and know they're worth more than just a few trinkets."
In September, a high school junior was shot and killed while walking to school in District Heights, Md. Marckel Ross, 18, was on his way to Central High School. His killer is still unknown.
