Charleston police were searching for at least one suspect Wednesday afternoon after at least 33 shots were fired near the intersection of Main Street and Park Avenue on the city's West Side.
Nobody appeared to be injured after the shooting, but bullets hit several cars and houses, said Lt. Steve Cooper, chief of detectives for the Charleston Police Department.
Residents lined the street and checked their property for damage. Several bullets shattered the rear window of a Dodge Neon, which sat near a cluster of shell casings.
"Any time you have that many shell casings, though, it's likely to be more than one shooter," Cooper said.
Mary Smith was at home with her son, William, when the shooting unfolded. They immediately dropped to the floor - just as they had many times before, she said.
Smith planned to leave for work just minutes before the incident. She said it became normal for gunshots to wake up her family, but that even going outside feels like a risk when shootings happen in broad daylight.
"It's like being a prisoner inside your own house," she said.
When her family visits Charleston, Smith said, they stay in a hotel rather than her West Side home. She and her neighbors are ready for a change.
She believes the neighborhood's main problem is drugs, especially from people who traffic the drugs from other states. She said it's common for out-of-state license plates to appear on her street.
The East End, she said, is an example of how concentrated police efforts can make a big difference.
Smith's home has been in her family since 1977. As of Wednesday, moving boxes sat inside. Smith said she can't live in a neighborhood where her loved ones face death just by sitting on the porch.
One recent shooting left a bullet lodged in a window frame at the front of her home - just a foot from where her son usually sits inside.
"Residents on this street are really tired of it," she said.
Another resident, Ron James, said he stepped outside to cut a piece of tile for a home renovation shortly before the shooting.
That's when he heard several bursts of gunfire and then saw a woman, who was wearing a Hardee's uniform, scramble to get in her car and drive away. She dropped her cellphone, which James said he gave to police.
James returned to his renovations after speaking with authorities.
"I need to get out of here before the next round of shootings," he said.
In a separate incident less than an hour before the West Side shooting, a man shot two people with a BB gun on Hillcrest Drive off Crescent Road.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Cooper said police were getting a warrant to arrest the suspect on two counts of malicious wounding.
Three witnesses said they saw a man named Bob Jarvis with the BB gun. Police would not confirm the suspect's identity.
A woman, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety, said a man shot her up to five times with the BB gun. Two red wounds dotted her stomach, and a BB protruded from her right arm.
The shooter was staying at her home, and she said he also shot another man in the face, narrowly missing his eye.
"I'm scared he's going to come back," she said.
She believes the suspect was jealous that other men stayed at the home. Thomas Harper, an acquaintance of the woman, said he saw a bleeding man run out of the house and down the street.
"Supposedly he stole a $5,000 ring from the guy that shot him," he said.
Reach Giuseppe Sabella at giuseppe.sabella@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @Gsabella on Twitter.