WOODBRIDGE, Va. — There is a dangerous and puzzling pattern unfolding in Prince William County this year as time and time again, police have been called to residential areas to investigate reports of occupied homes being hit by gunfire.
Since January, bullets have been fired at 16 homes in communities around the county.
Most of the incidents occurred in Woodbridge, but others also happened in Manassas and Dumfries, according to police records obtained by WTOP.
“Needless to say it’s very concerning to us,” said acting Prince William County Police Chief Barry Barnard.
“It’s very dangerous.”
Bullets have been found lodged in exterior and interior walls, windows and a glass door. In one shooting in February, five Woodbridge homes were damaged after someone opened fire in the area of Banjo Court. In another instance in May, bullets hit two homes along Westmoreland Avenue in Manassas.
“We have resources that we deploy throughout the day and particularly into the evening hours where some of these have occurred,” said Barnard.
“Intensive investigations are ongoing.”
Shootings remain a mystery
Investigators say there may be one or more people involved in multiple incidents, but it is not entirely clear how many of the shootings, if any, are connected.
Police are having a difficult time pinning down a motive.
“I don’t know that we can identify one or two singular motivations,” Barnard said.
“I think a lot of it is just reckless behavior.”
One of the difficulties involved with the investigations is the fact that many times, police are not even told about a shooting until property damage is discovered, which can happen several days after the fact.
In early January, a homeowner in Dumfries heard a “loud noise” but did not think anything of it until two days later when they looked at an upstairs window and found “a bullet lodged between the two panes of glass,” police records show.
Barnard assures the county is an overall safe place, although he told WTOP that residents “need to be concerned” and “have a right to be concerned” about the rash of mysterious shootings because people are being put at risk while minding their own business in their own homes.
There have been no injuries reported in connection with the incidents.
“It’s just been lucky that that hasn’t occurred,” he said.
Below is a map with the approximate locations of the shootings. Click on the pins for details. In some cases, police gave the same location for more than one shooting :
