8 people injured, police say

Eight people, including a 12-year-old girl, were injured in two consecutive shootings in Washington, DC Friday night, police said.

No one died in the shootings, which Metropolitan Police Department officials said were believed to be connected.

Around 10 p.m. Friday, police were responding to reports of gunshots being fired on the southeast side of the city, where officers found seven men with gunshot wounds, Deputy Chief of Patrol Services South Andre Wright told a news conference. None of their injuries were life-threatening, and most of the victims took themselves to hospitals.

“There was obviously some chaos because of the number of victims and their families,” he said.

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Police then received a report of a nearby shooting where they found a 12-year-old girl with “a gunshot wound to her lower extremity,” Wright said. The girl is in stable condition and her injury is not life-threatening, he added.

Multiple shell casings were found at both crime scenes, Wright said.

Wright asked the public for help as investigators search for a black sedan, or possibly a Mercedes, that witnesses say “was driving through the block shooting at people indiscriminately.”

Because of the proximity of the two scenes and the short time frame, Wright said the shootings are believed to be connected.

Investigators are still looking for a motive for the shooting and have yet to determine if anyone was specifically targeted, Wright said.

“It’s a beautiful night. There were people hanging out here and there were people moving in the 2nd Street scene,” Wright said. “And for some reason there are some people who think it’s okay to fire a gun at multiple people in two different scenes. And we won’t leave it like that.”

Contribution: The Associated Press