Police say the residents of Gaithersburg have been plagued by the sound of mysterious nighttime gunshots.
“We’re unsure of why people are firing guns in residential neighborhoods,” police Capt. Alan Goldberg, who heads Montgomery County’s 6th District, which covers Gaithersburg, has said. “It could be target shooting, it could be something more menacing, but we don’t want people doing it and it is illegal.”
Around 11:30 p.m. Monday, shots went off and bullets caused damage to several cars on the 9900 block of Ridgeline Drive, and then, at about 2:20 a.m. Tuesday, more flying bullets near the intersection of State Court and Federal Court damaged a house and cars.
“Detectives believe the cases are related,” said police spokeswoman Melanie Hadley.
The two sections of town, separated by about 3 miles, have very little in common.
Ridgeline Drive runs a loop off Club House Road in Montgomery Village, an area better known for its upper-middle-class residents and well-kept neighborhoods than gunfire.
Residents of State Court and Federal Court, where the other shots were heard, say crime is a problem there.
Goldberg has said police believe other instances might be connected, and as of last month, police were still trying to piece together the seemingly random instances that have popped up across the city.
In late April, police distributed a flier at a community meeting requesting that anybody with knowledge of the random shots speak to police.
And it was a problem that continued Tuesday morning when Montgomery County detectives searched for witnesses and information regarding the gunshots until 5 a.m., but “there was not a lot of cooperation,” Hadley said. “It’s hard to get people to come forward when whoever is responsible is clearly armed.”
Anyone with information should call 301-840-2347.
