Madison Police are investigating the shooting of a 19-year-old male Wednesday evening on the 600 block of West Washington Avenue.
Police said at least three shots were fired outside the Mental Health Center of Dane County at 625 W. Washington Ave. around 5:54 p.m. According to MPD public information officer Mike Hanson, the act was not random and the victim knew the shooter. The victim was taken to a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Hanson said police are looking for a group of three to five black males who reportedly fled in a vehicle after the shooting. Investigators later recovered the vehicle on Madison's south side and continue to search for the suspects, some of whom police have identified.
Police continued to comb through the crime scene in the hours after the shooting, searching for additional evidence such as shell casings and bullet fragments to count the number of bullets fired, according to Hanson.
UW-Madison junior Kristy Ludwig, who lives one block from the shooting, said the presence of police cars and caution tape is becoming all too familiar in her neighborhood after the April 2 Brittany Zimmermann homicide on nearby West Doty Street.
It's sad to say, but you're kind of like immune to it now,"" Ludwig said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, who represents the area in which both the homicide and shooting took place, said his ""heart sank"" when he learned the of Wednesday's incident.
""I think it is critical to stress, particularly given what this neighborhood has gone through in the last month in terms of crime, that this absolutely was a random act of violence,"" he said.
