HOLLYWOOD, Md. (December 01, 2022)—In the spring and summer months in St. Mary's the streets of Lexington Park, and in some cases those of communities as far north as Hollywood, shootings were occurring regularly.
Sometimes the victims were shot dead, other times they were wounded.
On some occasions the shootings struck homes and vehicles.
But the county has been without a shooting investigation since last month, sheriff's officials said, marking a period of relative calm.
The last shooting occurred Oct. 18, sheriff's office spokesman Jason Babcock said, at Patuxent Crossing Shopping Center in California.
In that shooting most of the rounds fired from the street struck a barber shop but they also shattered the front window of the Dollar Tree store as well, Babcock said.
There have been no arrests in that shooting, Babcock said.
The month prior, in Lexington Park, police investigated a home invasion in which a 9-year-old was shot; there have been no arrests in that incident, either.
There was one other shooting that month that involved a home being struck by gunfire, though there were no injuries reported in that incident.
There were four shootings in September, including the incident involving the child being shot.
The violence in St. Mary's County this year has been among the worst in recent history.
One shooting in August resulted in death with a suspect arrested; the same occurred in July when a young man was arrested in the shooting death of another at the Hollywood fire department carnival.
June and May both saw two shootings each and April by far saw the most shootings with a total of seven, according to sheriff's office records.
In March there was one shooting but that also resulted in a homicide with an arrest.
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