Five people have died in an apparently random series of shootings over several hours in a Washington suburb, police said this evening.
Police said two women and three men were killed in six separate shooting incidents that began last night and continued this afternoon in Montgomery County, Maryland, which is north of Washington.
The victims were killed in a 10-mile radius and police said they appeared to be randomly selected in busy public places.
The first victim, who died on Wednesday, was a 55-year-old man shot in a supermarket parking lot.
On Thursday a man mowing grass near a shopping mall was killed. A taxi driver was killed while pumping gasoline, a woman was shot sitting on a park bench outside a post office, and another woman was shot while vacuuming her car at a second gasoline station.
The shootings began before the first murder, with a gun being fired through a store-front window, police said. No one was killed or injured.
Children at schools in the county were told they could not leave and outside activities were halted, officials said.