A man is in critical condition at a local hospital after he was shot in the head Thursday morning in the Dunbar/Institute area, according to police.
Sgt. Brian Humphreys of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office said callers to 911 reported shots fired beginning at 11:03 a.m.
One caller reported a man lying on the ground, possibly shot in the head, on Smoot Avenue.
A West Virginia State University officer was the first on scene. He found the man shot in the head lying in the parking lot of a public housing complex in the area of 108 Smoot Ave.
No arrests had been made as of Thursday afternoon, and the victim's name had not been released. Detectives were interviewing potential witnesses and collecting evidence into the afternoon.
The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office is the lead agency handling the investigation. Deputies also asked WVSU officers and Dunbar police to assist.
Multiple people were seen leaving the scene Thursday, but police declined to release their descriptions, noting they may have only been fleeing the sound of gunshots.
Schools in the area went into lockdown, but that ended by about 1:15 p.m., according to a phone message from Kanawha County schools. West Virginia State University lifted its lockdown by about 11:45 a.m., according to a post to the school's Twitter account.
Reach Erin Beck at
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