Two women were fatally shot at a senior living apartment building in Prince George’s County on Friday morning, police said. One man was arrested inside the building soon after the shooting, and police said no other suspects were involved.
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The victims were not immediately identified, but multiple officials with knowledge of the investigation said the two women killed were employees.
The shooting occurred at the Gateway Village apartment building on Suffolk Avenue in Capitol Heights, just off Old Central Avenue. Police were called to the apartments at 9:10 a.m., and Capitol Heights and Prince George’s police initially surrounded the building while evacuating residents. They then went in and apprehended the suspect, who was not immediately identified.
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“We are absolutely devastated about the loss of life again today,” Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said in a news conference near the building. “There really is no good explanation for why this kind of occurrence can happen again and again … the heart of a person that’s capable of committing this kind of crime is just really inexplicable.”
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The shooting comes as the county and other communities nationwide have seen an increase in homicides. Prince George’s County has had more than 100 homicides so far this year, according to tracking by The Washington Post. The total surpasses the number of killings recorded in the jurisdiction for all of 2020.
Gateway Village has 89 residents, some who sheltered in place and others who were moved to a nearby fire station, deputy county administrator Barry Stanton said. The nearby Capitol Heights Elementary School was on lockdown as a precaution, but the lockdown was soon lifted.
Capitol Heights is a town of about 4,500 that has its own police department but often works with Prince George’s police on major incidents. Immediately north of the apartment building is a Prince George’s County Fire station and a post office.
When Capitol Heights police arrived at Gateway Village, officers first encountered a man running from the building who told them there was a shooter inside, Capitol Heights police Chief Mark Cummings said. When officers went inside, they found one victim in a corridor and a second victim in the building’s office, Cummings said.
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The building was evacuated, and Prince George’s police summoned their conflict management team, which was nearby and started treating the episode as a barricade situation, Prince George’s Deputy Chief Lakina Webster said.
After about an hour, the male suspect was taken into custody without incident, Prince George’s police said. A man who said he was a resident of the building told reporters that the suspect had stepped outside of an apartment, laid down on the floor with his hands out and placed a firearm away from himself. Police declined to confirm those details during their news conference Friday afternoon.
The police also declined to say whether the victims or the suspect were residents or employees of Gateway Village.
Vincent Green, 56, said he was on his way back from an automated teller machine and walking into his home on nearby Elder Street and heard what sounded like six gunshots. Soon he learned that someone had killed two people in the senior living apartments.
He described Gateway Village as a nice and secure building, where anyone entering has to be buzzed in or use a secure key card to gain access.
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Green said that as a neighborhood resident, he is concerned about gun violence and support for mental health at a time when homicide rates are up and residents are feeling the compounding strain of economic hardship and an ongoing pandemic.
“It don’t make no sense why people just out here killing people over nothing,” Green said.
Capitol Heights council members Elaine Williams and LaTonya Chew gathered outside the police tape Friday, working to ensure the residents and their family members were fed and well inside the fire station. The county, they said, was taking care of their needs inside the firehouse.
Before departing, they huddled together to brainstorm what they could do to make sure the residents who witnessed and survived the shooting are connected with grief and trauma counseling in the coming weeks.
“Let’s make it happen,” Williams said.
Dana Hedgpeth and Donovan J. Thomas contributed to this report.
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