Responding to the scene of a reported gunshot Thursday night, Brooklyn Park police officers shined a spotlight and saw at least four people standing around a car with one of its doors open.

Between the individuals and the officers stood a fence, and by the time police circled a Huntington Place apartment building to approach them from the other side, the people had scattered, Deputy Chief Craig Enevoldsen said.

Outside the car, officers found a 17-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the head. She died at the scene, Enevoldsen said. On Friday, police still were looking for her killer.

Around 11 p.m. Thursday, about the same time as the Brooklyn Park shooting, another young person was fatally shot in south Minneapolis, police said.

That victim, an 18-year-old man from Cass Lake, Minn., was standing with a group of people outside a multi-unit home in the 2700 block of Longfellow Avenue S. when shots were fired about 11:10 p.m. The victim was struck in the head and died at Hennepin County Medical Center, according to police.

Enevoldsen said investigators would explore whether the two shootings might be linked, but he added that the closeness of the police call times made that seem unlikely.

The 17-year-old girl, whose identity had not been released as of late Friday afternoon, was found in a paved area marked as a fire lane behind the Huntington Place complex near 73rd Avenue and Unity Lane N. She was not believed to be a tenant, Enevoldsen said.

The car belonged to one of her relatives, he added.

On Friday, officers were going through the complex to speak with residents while members of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office's Underwater Recovery Team searched a nearby pond.

Enevoldsen said people told police they heard a "verbal altercation" before the shooting. But he said that it was not yet clear whether the quarrel involved the victim or others at the scene.

The sheriff's Underwater Team searched the pond because the area was a potential escape route, Enevoldsen said. Asked whether divers might be looking for a gun, he said: "It's just like the canvassing [within the Huntington Place apartments]. It's routine."

Seeking leads

In the Minneapolis case, authorities also had yet to make an arrest or to release the victim's identity.

After being shot, the man was aided at the scene by emergency medical personnel, then brought to the hospital, where he died several hours later.

Police said that shots also were fired at two 20-year-old men standing near the victim, but that neither was wounded.

It was the city's 15th homicide this year, compared with 26 at the same time in 2010.

Anyone with information about the Minneapolis case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

alonetree@startribune.com • 612-673-4109 dchanen@startribune.com • 612-673-4465 pwalsh@startribune.com • 612-673-4482