A woman in a vehicle was fatally struck by a stray bullet Wednesday afternoon near the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Northeast Washington, according to D.C. police.

       The shooting occurred shortly after 3 p.m. in the 600 block of Division Avenue NE, near Marvin Gaye Park.

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       D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said at a news conference that officers were in the area and heard gunshots. He said they sped to the scene, got out of their car and heard screams.

       Inside a vehicle, Contee said, they found a woman passenger who had been struck by gunfire and was gravely injured. She died a short time later at a hospital. Her name and age have not been released.

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       Police said there was at least one other person inside the vehicle at the time. Contee said they “were not the intended targets of the shooting. Someone was shooting at someone else and as this car passed through this location, a stray round apparently went through this vehicle.”

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       It was not immediately clear whether the vehicle was moving when it as struck.

       Authorities said the assailants fled toward H.D. Woodson High School, located a short distance away. Contee said an officer spotted a person in a vehicle with a gun near the school, but was not able to catch up to the person. The school was put into lockdown during the search.

       No arrests have been made. Police said one of the people being sought appeared to be a teen.

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       There were at least four other shootings in the District on Wednesday morning and afternoon. None appear to be related, police said, and those victims all were expected to survive. A 16-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded Tuesday night in Southeast Washington.

       There have been 16 homicides in the District this year, a 24 percent drop from this time in 2021, which ended with more than 200 killings for the first time since 2003.

       Wednesday’s shooting on Division Avenue occurred near the park where police and political leaders from the District and Prince George’s County in Maryland had gathered last week to discuss crime that crosses between the two jurisdictions.