At least one shot was fired at a Coast Guard recruiting center in Woodbridge, the fifth time an overnight shooting has been reported at a Northern Virginia military facility since mid-October.
Ballistics testing shows that the same weapon was used in the first four incidents, 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn, a Prince William County police spokeswoman, said Tuesday. Authorities had previously linked three of the cases.
The most recent shooting occurred sometime Monday night or early Tuesday morning at a recruiting station in a strip mall near the Potomac Mills mall. The center sustained minor damage, Chinn said.
Police and the FBI said it’s too early to tell whether the shooting is linked to the four previous incidents — two at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, one at the Pentagon and one at a Marine Corps recruiting station in Chantilly.
All of the shootings occurred in the middle of the night. No one has been injured.
The FBI said Friday that authorities believe the gunman in the first four incidents is someone who has a grievance against the Marines but is not trying to hurt anyone.
The Coast Guard shooting doesn’t change that, officials said.
“At this point, there’s no hard conclusions about this shooting and how it’s connected,” FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said.
The first incident was reported at the Marine Corps museum, where shots were discovered Oct. 17.
Two days later, six shots hit the Pentagon. The shots hit an unoccupied part of the building that was being renovated.
The FBI began its probe after shots were fired at a Chantilly Marine Corps recruiting station sometime on Oct. 25 or Oct. 26. An employee found bullet holes in the windows of that strip mall recruitment office and an adjacent business.
Chinn said she was not aware of other businesses hit near the Coast Guard recruiting station.
The museum was hit a second time last week. Multiple shots hit windows on the west side of the building, in the same location as the first shooting, police said.
Authorities will not say what type of weapon was used.
