WASHINGTON (AP) — A man was killed and three other people were seriously injured Tuesday during a shooting outside a funeral home where a homicide victim was being held in Washington, DC, according to police.
A police officer was near the northeast Washington funeral home where the service was being held when the shooting began around 12:30 p.m., Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said.
The shooting occurred about 20 minutes after a funeral for a homicide victim who was shot to death last month ended. The victim’s family had asked police to deploy officers near the funeral home, Contee added.
At least four people were shot, Contee said. A man died at the scene and three people, two men and a woman, were taken to hospital in serious condition, according to a spokesman for the US capital’s Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services.
“At this time, it appears that a number of people who were on the block were specifically targeted,” Contee said at a news conference held outside the funeral home. “We’re not sure why that was, why these people were being targeted, or more or less why they were targeted at a funeral. We don’t understand that.”
Police have not made any arrests related to the case.
The shooting comes as the United States is reeling from a series of massacres, including one on Monday at a Louisville bank that left five people dead.
