Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is calling for more enforcement to get guns off the street after five teenagers were shot and wounded during a senior skip day Friday.
“The final days of being in their senior year, disrupted by violence,” Alsobrooks told reporters Saturday morning. “The thing that we know is that we absolutely cannot tolerate on any level, the violence that we’re seeing, we have to get these guns off the streets.”
She said police have “redoubled” efforts to investigate cases like the one that took place Friday at Schrom Hills Park in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Police said that around 500 students, many of whom attend nearby Eleanor Roosevelt High School, were at the park for an unofficial senior skip day event.
That’s when shots rang out and five boys aged 16 to 18 were shot and wounded. All were hospitalized, one in critical condition. Three of the victims were released from the hospital Saturday, with the two remaining victims hospitalized in stable condition.
“A fight is very different, escalated by a gun. That’s what changed yesterday. It was not that there was conflict, it was conflict plus a gun,” Alsobrooks said.
“Our police department has a whole unit that now has a better ability to trace guns and to try to really ramp up our efforts to remove the guns from the street. But we also need some sensible gun laws,” Alsobrooks, who is also running for an open senate seat, said.
Greenbelt police are continuing to investigate the shooting. No suspect has been arrested but they believe there was only one shooter.
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