The typical quiet of a Hyattsville neighborhood was shattered Wednesday night by gunfire that killed two men and left two others wounded.
“I just hope it’s not a sign of things to come,” Cathy Wilson, who lives a few doors down from where the four men were shot on the 3300 block of Manorwood Drive around 8:30 p.m. in what police are saying started out as a robbery. Wilson has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years and described it as friendly; a place where kids often play games in the street and she normally feels comfortable walking her dog, even at night.
Police have yet to identify any of the victims, but friends and neighbors saidone man, who died on the scene, was Nelson Hernandez, 22, and another, who remains in a hospital recovering from a gunshot to his face, is Manuel Jesus Zelaya, of Hyattsville.
Hernandez had moved to the United States from El Salvador within the last year and was living in the basement of a home across the street from the shooting, said Ana Rivas, who lives upstairs. Hernandez, Zelaya and the two others were planning on going to watch the El Salvador national soccer team face off against Anguilla at RFK Stadium, she said.
According to Prince George’s County police, the four were sitting in a parked car when three black suspects approached them, ordered them out of the car, robbed them and then shot each of them in the face with a handgun. They then fled in a dark-colored sedan.
The incident took place on what neighbors said is an usually dark corner in an otherwise well-lit neighborhood and a bullet hole in the side of a tree shows where the shooter might have missed his mark.
Raymond Zelaya, Manuel’s younger brother, said Manuel was still awaiting surgery for his wounds Thursday evening.
“I’d like to know the motive,” Wilson said. “I’d be much more concerned if this was something like a gang than a random robbery.”
