Auburn Police were searching Friday afternoon for a shooter who killed a teenager shortly after 8 a.m. in Auburn’s south end, forcing several schools to go on precautionary lockdown Friday morning.

The shooting occurred in the area 25th and F Street Southeast, where police found the 17-year-old victim in the driver’s seat of his car, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Police and medics tried to revive him but could not, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A K9 unit could not track the suspect, whom witnesses described only as a black male in his late teens or early 20s.

Officers responded to the scene at 8:32 a.m., in the middle of the roadway on 25th Street mere yards west of a Sierra Meadows Apartment Homes sign.

“Witnesses reported several subjects running from the scene. and we are currently in the process of trying to identify those subjects. The information we have so far leads us to believe that this shooting is gang related,” said Auburn Police Commander Steve Stocker.

Olympic Middle School, Pioneer Elementary, and Terminal Park Elementary, were in lockdown. Gildo Rey Elementary and Mt. Baker Middle School also were placed on modified lockdown. The lockdowns were lifted within two hours.

An area resident had this to say.

“Police said it wasn’t a random shooting, but it’s becoming like a war zone here,” said the woman, who did not give her name.

If anyone has any information related to this shooting, they should contact the Auburn Police Department tip line at 253-288-7403 or call 911.