One man was shot dead and another injured after a gunman opened fire in a MGM hotel food court.
The shooter is on the run following the “targeted attack” at the MGM National Harbour in Maryland on the outskirts of Washington D.C Wednesday.
Surveillance footage showed the victim had been ordering food at around noon when the suspect opened fire. There had been no interaction between them beforehand, police said.
Prince George's County Police Department Chief George Nader said that when the suspect entered the food court, it "seemed like he knew where the victim was, and then went that way.”
When officers arrived at the scene they found the victim, described only as a man in his 20s, had been fatally shot.
The suspect is then believed to have fled the scene by car. The MGM National Harbor, which opened in 2016, is on a sprawling site just off the Capital Beltway and near the Potomac River.
“When officers responded they located one victim in the food court,” Nader said during a press conference on Wednesday.
“That victim is deceased. That victim is an adult male we believe in their 20s. We do know that this was a targeted shooting based on our investigation at this point – it wasn’t random.
“It appeared they were looking for this person, chased them down, and the shooting occurred right there in the food court.”
He added that after briefly locking down local schools, police believe there’s now no active threat to the community, but said they are searching for the suspect.
The casino remains open with only the food court cordoned off as a crime scene, Nader said.
“It's rare that instances like this occur,” he added. “We're confident we'll close this case.”
The incident comes after two people were killed and five wounded when a man opened fire in a casino parking lot in Texas in September.
