A 17-year-old was fatally shot Thursday night in the White Oak area of Montgomery County, police said, near an area where residents have voiced concerns about gun violence. The teen victim was found inside a car in a parking lot at The Birches apartment complex, where several residents' vehicles were damaged.
Police say the teen was suffering from a gunshot wound when he drove through the complex's parking lot in the 1500 block of Heather Hollow Circle, hitting cars along the way. It happened about 11 p.m. Thursday.
The victim's vehicle finally came to a stop when it got caught up on a parked car.
"Everybody was screaming, 'Everybody, come out; call police, call police, call police,'" Cecilia Davis, a resident of The Birches, said.
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Davis said the engine of the victim's car was still revving, but the victim was unconscious. That's when first responders arrived.
"They tried to get the victim out [of] the car. They were not able to get him out so they have to break the window," Davis said.
The teen was taken to a hospital, where he died. Montgomery County police identified him as 17-year-old Tyrone Howard Brown, of no fixed address. Police had earlier said the victim was an adult.
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It was not immediately known what led up to the shooting. “There is no suspect information at this time and no one in custody,” Montgomery County police said.
News4 saw at least seven cars damaged in the parking lot outside the apartments, including a black sedan with its front bumper appeared torn off. Broken glass littered the pavement. Police gave incident reports to those with damaged cars, a resident said. They also towed away some cars. It wasn’t immediately clear why.
Neighbors say the uptick in violent crime is really starting to concern them.
"This has to stop," another resident said. "It's getting worse in this area. Every month you're hearing something's going on. It was never like this here."
The resident's car was badly damaged in the incident.
"I feel like it's totaled," she said. "And this is a new car. I got it six months ago."
Her car may be a total loss, but she's upset about more than property damage. She's lived in the White Oak area for four years and has seen crime spike in recent months.
This is the second murder in White Oak in a little more than a week. On July 5, a man was fatally shot inside an apartment just a half-mile from Friday morning's shooting. In February, a man was killed aboard a Metrobus on Lockwood Drive, and there have been other murders and shootings in the area.
"I'm worried. I'm scared. I was nervous. I didn't sleep last night," Davis said. "For something that never happened, it started to be happening now. It's no good."
The crime comes just a week after 40-year-old Cederic Allen Warner of Silver Spring was found shot and killed in an apartment on Lockwood Drive — about a half-mile away from the crime scene on Heather Hollow Circle.
Francisco Carballo, who lives directly across from the building, said he sees a lot happening in the neighborhood from his front porch.
“The incidents are happening very often; crime is rising in this area,” Carballo said in Spanish.
In the wake of that shooting, Montgomery County leaders held a community event against gun violence as part of their Summer of Peace campaign.
“I’m concerned about violence everywhere in the community,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.
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