A school near Houston, Texas, was put on lockdown on Friday after a string of what appear to be random shootings over the last week.
The principal of Southminster school in Missouri City, Texas, told a local ABC news affiliate she was not acting on a recommendation from police, but out of an abundance of caution after one person was shot dead and four others attacked in recent weeks.
Police this week said the shootings appeared to be related, and all involved a similar scenario: a man in a dark SUV drives up beside a pedestrian and then opens fire.
The first incident took place around 7pm on the evening of 17 February, when a driver pulled alongside a pedestrian in Missouri City, Texas, and pointed a gun, which jammed. Detective Andy Robb told the Houston Chronicle the pedestrian, a college student, had time to flee and save his live.
Less than an hour later, Pak Ho, 34, was shot about seven miles away in a residential Houston neighbourhood. He was struck several times, and died of his wounds at a local hospital.
Another victim, Donald Ashford, was shot multiple times, and is expected to survive. And another victim was shot in the buttocks but managed to escape, according to police.
On 23 February, the gunman struck again, shooting a man in the arm in Missouri City.
The student at whom the killer’s gun jammed told a local ABC news affiliate that the gunman ran towards him with the gun and pulled the trigger. “It started clicking. Then he started hitting the gun and then that’s when I took off,” he said.
The victims have no connection to each other, and police said that the gunman appears to be picking his targets at random.
“Right now he seems to just be targeting people walking,” detective Robb told ABC.
Police said that the shooter is “a black male, light skin, possible mixed race, stocky build, early 30s”, according to ABC News, and driving a dark-coloured Jeep Cherokee.
Victor Senties, a spokesman for Houston police department, told the Guardian that detectives were currently “following up leads”.
He said that anybody with information is asked to contact the homicide division at 713-308-3600.
