Schools closed after shooting

Victim found at nearby preschool

CARVER - Moments after the echo of gunfire shattered the midmorning calm of a heavily residential road here, a woman drove a bullet-riddled car with a man in the back seat suffering gunshot wounds into a preschool parking lot yesterday.

The incident forced the immediate lockdown of the school, South Shore Head Start, just over the town line in Plymouth, and of nearby Carver High School. The victim, 26-year-old Justin Hurley, sustained wounds to his legs. He was taken by MedFlight helicopter to a Boston hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

Police released only a few details of the case, about which they received a call at 10:21 a.m., and have not disclosed any motive for the shooting. No suspects have been arrested.

Police said they are looking for a dark-colored two-door vehicle with out-of-state license plates.

Residents living along South Meadow Road said they heard at least two loud shots, followed by a moment of silence and then at least 10 rapid-fire shots. That noise was followed by the screeching of tires. Some residents said they looked out their windows in time to see a black Chrysler sedan, familiar to them as a neighbor's car, speed past Carver High School, in the direction of the elementary school, near Plymouth County Airport.

About 200 children were in the South Shore Head Start and Child Care center when the unidentified woman drove into the school parking lot with a flat tire, said Jennifer Swinhart, the school's director.

"Someone from the office staff said there was a man in the parking lot who had been shot," Swinhart said. "We called 911, and the school's nurse grabbed some towels and went out to help him."

The injured man was sitting in the back seat, Swinhart said. Police and an ambulance soon arrived and took the man to a nearby hospital.

By early afternoon, police were gathering in front of a grayish Ranch-style home on South Meadow Road, where two hefty luxury sport utility vehicles sat in the front yard. Several residents said the victim recently moved into the house.

A neighbor, Marina Pickett, said she saw the unidentified woman, the driver of the car, back at the scene of the shooting, walking up and down South Meadow Road and talking to authorities. "Yeah, it's pretty shocking to think that a shooting happened so close to home," Pickett said.

Back at the school, tow truck operator Jim McCarthy lifted the Chrysler sedan onto his flatbed. Later, he said, "The tire that was shot, it was all shredded, and a bullet fragment fell out of it."