One killed, 3 hurt in shooting outside funeral home in Washington DC

One man was killed and three other people were critically injured on Tuesday in a shooting outside of a funeral for a homicide victim in the US capital city, according to police.

Robert Contee, chief of Washington DC Metropolitan Police, said a police officer was stationed near the funeral home in north east Washington DC where the service was held when the gunfire broke out around 12:30pm.

The shooting happened about 20 minutes after a funeral ended for a victim of a homicide who was shot and killed in March. The victim's family had asked police to have officers near the funeral, Contee said.

At least four people were shot, Contee said. One man died at the scene and three more people — two men and a woman — were taken to hospital in critical condition, according to a spokesperson for DC Fire and EMS.

“At this point, it appears that several people who were in the block were specifically targeted," Contee said at a news conference outside the funeral home. “We’re unsure why that is, why these people were targeted, more or less why they were targeted at a funeral. We don’t understand that.”

Police have made no arrests in the case.

The gunfire comes as the country reels from the latest string of mass shootings, including five people killed at a Louisville bank on Monday.

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