4 more injured in continued rash of shootings in Woodbridge

Shots rang out at early this morning in Woodbridge, injuring four poeple.

When officers arrived at The Palace Bar and Grill in Marumsco Plaza at 2:15 a.m., they found a female bystander and three security guards suffering after they had been struck or grazed by gunfire.

The security guards are aged 26, 33, and 45, and the woman is 28-years-old, police said. Gunfire injured all of them following an argument between the shooter and someone else inside the restaurant. The shooter went to his car parked outside, grabbed a gun, walked back, and started shooting, police said.

Emergency crews took victims to a hospital. Each suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

After the shooting, the shooter got into a dark-colored sedan. Police recovered multiple shell casings from the parking lot.

Police described the suspect as a Hispanic male, between 5-feet 3-inches and 5-feet 8-inches tall, with a thin build, tan complexion, clean-shaven face, a tattoo below his right eye, and short black hair. Witnesses said he wore a blue jacket or shirt, dark-colored jeans, and white shoes. Police encouraged anyone with information about the suspect to call its tip line at 703-792-7000.

When shots rang out, officers already in the area heard the gunshots and could quickly go to the crime scene, a police spokesman said. In August, a 21-year-old bystander was shot in the leg outside The Palace.

Tysons Corner-based retail leasing firm KLNB advertises Marumsco Plaza as a vibrant shopping destination. Over the past five years, the state and Prince William County poured hundreds of millions of dollars into widening Route 1, a significant thoroughfare carrying more than 40,000 cars a day past the shopping center.

The four injured in today’s shooting are the latest victims in a spree of shootings in the Woodbridge area. A week ago, a man was shot in a drive-by while sitting in his car parked at Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, a busy shopping center featuring an Apple Store, Alamo Drafthouse movie theater, and anchored by Wegman’s grocery.

About a mile from Stonebridge, two men were shot on Crescent and Bakersfield streets on December 4 and 6, respectively. Also, nearby on December 4, gunfire rattled someone sitting inside a home on Castle Hill Drive. Police said no one suffered injuries and that officers found several shell casings on the ground.

On December 3, someone shot a 21-year-old in the Powells Creek neighborhood in Woodbridge, just off Route 1, about four miles from Stonebridge. Emergency crews took the victim to a hospital while police began searching for the suspects who fled the scene.

The shootings in each case do not appear random, police said.