Teenage girl ‘grazed’ by bullet in Washington, DC, after being caught in shooting crossfire near high school

The teenager was hit after bullets from an ‘exchange of gunfire’ smashed through the window of a classroom at Dunbar High School on Friday morning

A 17-year-old girl was “grazed” with a bullet after being caught in the crossfire of gunfire near a high school in Washington, DC, police have said.

Officers from the DC Metropolitan Police Department responded to the incident around 9.54am local time on Friday, following reports of a shooting victim inside Dunbar High School.

Police said that a teenage female was found with a “minor graze injury” and had been transported to hospital. Her family is with her. Assistant chief Leslie Parsons said the teenager was “totally fine”.

It is understood that the incident occurred after a vehicle travelled the wrong way down nearby streets, at which point a “series of gunshots” were fired. The motive remains unknown.

The girl was struck after bullets smashed through the glass window of the building, police said. It was believed she was inside a classroom at the time of the incident.

Dunbar High School was briefly placed on lockdown but is expected to reopen shortly. Students will be dismissed on the opposite side of the building to where the shooting occurred.

Metropolitan Police chief Pamela Smith said: “Even though they have been on lockdown, I want everyone to know they are secure and they are safe”.

A neighbour who was present in the area told Fox News that the gunfire had sounded “similar to automatic fire” and there had been “about 20 or 30 shots”.

“I was sitting there with the window open, watching our kids – it was pretty obvious, we knew immediately, we heard the sirens going off. It was just routine gunfire.

“We’re used to this, well, we’re not used to this.”

Assistant chief Parsons told reporters that the investigations were still in the preliminary stages, and that little information was currently available.