Teen shot dead in Fort Washington apartment

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. - A teenage boy was gunned down in Fort Washington on Monday, and now detectives with the Prince George’s County Police Department are searching for the shooter and answers.

The mood in the River Pointe Apartments community is tense. The family of the 16-year-old – identified by police as Elijah Fletcher – is outraged. They broke out wailing after finding out the devastating news.

Prince George’s County police have put up crime scene tape in the front of the apartment complex, which is parallel to Indian Head Highway near the beltway.

Homicide detectives told FOX 5 that officers drove to the scene after people called 911 about a shooting.

Around 5:45 p.m., they found Fletcher's body with several gunshot wounds lying on the building's laundry room floor. 

While the detectives collect evidence and learn more about the victim, they are trying to determine who killed the teen and why. 

One woman FOX 5 spoke to who lives in the community called the shooting "devastating." 

"Actually, living around here has been pretty quiet," she said.  "We never heard anything like this going around the neighborhood as we were coming downstairs and outside the crime scene, and it is just pretty devastating to hear that something happened so close to home."

Police have not released the exact age of the teen or the school he attended. They want anyone with information about this shooting to give them a call.