A man was killed just after his 21st birthday, and four others were wounded in a shooting overnight in Adelphi, Maryland, near a condo complex, police said.
Officers responded to the 1800 block of Metzerott Road about 12:10 a.m. Wednesday and found five men had been shot, Prince George’s County police said.
Juan Agudelo Maldonado of Lanham was pronounced dead at the scene. He had just turned 21.
"This is disturbing, concerning,” Prince George’s County Police Deputy Chief Anthony Schartner said. “We have five young men, and a young male who died, essentially, on his birthday.”
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The victims were together outside the condo complex when two gunmen approached and words were exchanged, police said.
“We don't know why, but the two gunmen opened fire and struck the five and then fled on foot," Schartner said.
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A woman who did not want to be identified said she thought the noise was fireworks.
“I go, ‘Hey, excuse me can you please take those fireworks someplace else?’” she said.
She unknowingly was talking to the dying victim, whose wounds were hard to see in the dark.
“You hear about people getting shot, but seeing it is different, and watching someone die, you can't really help them, it's heartbreaking,” she said.
The four injured men were taken to hospitals and are expected to survive, police said. One was released from the hospital on Wednesday, police said.
Homicide and forensic investigators were called to the scene. Officers were seen carting bags and boxes up a hill outside the building.
Preliminarily, police don’t believe this was a random crime and say there’s no threat to the community.
No descriptions of the gunmen were given, but there's a $25,000 reward in the case, police said.
Stay with News4 for more on this developing story
