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By NBCWashington.com
A high school junior was shot and killed Tuesday morning while walking to school in District Heights, Md.
Marckel Norman Ross, 18, was on his way to Central High School when he was gunned down on Old Central Avenue.
Several calls came in at about 6:50 a.m. reporting the shooting.
“Detectives are actively working this case,” Prince George’s County police spokesperson Julie Parker said Tuesday. “We are looking for witnesses, anyone who may have seen anything at about 6:50 this morning on old Central Avenue.”
The Ross family moved from Anne Arundel County to District Heights in 2009.
“I moved them to Anne Arundel County for a better life and I felt like they were old enough to be able to protect themselves a little bit so I brought them back up here,” said Elizabeth Ross, the victim’s mother.
She said her son had a hard time adjusting and was held back a grade. His issues were social, she said, and he was bullied by a group of boys last year.
Elizabeth Ross said she took her bullying complaints all the way to the Board of Education.
“Always want to fight, every time he see them, they saying something to him,” she said.
The school's principal told News4's Tracee Wilkins that Ross was involved in the modeling club and was a beloved student. "This is a young man who deserved to live," the principal said.
He was also making honor roll and was involved in track and ROTC.
No suspect information was immediately available.
"The Prince Georges County Public Schools community is saddened beyond measure by the shooting death that claimed the life of Central High School 11th-grader Markel Ross as he walked to school this morning," Dr. Alvin L. Crawley, Interim Superintendent of Schools, said in a statement Tuesday.
"...We extend our deepest sympathies to this young mans family and friends, along with our fervent hope that those responsible for his death will soon be brought to justice," the statement continued.
Grief counselors from around the county went to the school to support students.
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