WASHINGTON - Detectives say two masked gunmen charged into a family's home full of children Thursday morning and opened fire, wounding a five-year-old child and killing 37-year-old Franklin Johnson. Police say it appears Johnson was the target.

The child was shot in the chest and was transported to Children's Hospital with, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier (web | news | bio) confirms, non-life-threatening injuries. Chief Lanier said that the child was in surgery, and that the man had died of multiple gunshot wounds.

"I had to tell his mother, I had to tell his mother," said Haywood Southerland, the victim's cousin. "They were trying to hold it back but I had to tell his mother."

Seven children of varying ages, siblings and cousins, were taken from the home where the shooting occurred. "He liked all the kids, he liked for them to come around the house," said Charles Johnson, father of the murdered man.

At this time, authorities are uncertain as to why the gunmen apparently targeted the home. Relatives say the victim lived here with his fiancee and as many as seven children. Two of the children, they say, were his own while the others were foster children.

The shooting occurred on the 600 block Kenyon Street northwest at 8:14 a.m. The adult man was pronounced dead at the scene by members of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia.

ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 cameras first captured pictures of the burned getaway van. It had been dumped in southeast D.C. behind an apartment building on Livingston Road. Police found it just three hours after the shootings.

The five-year-old victim, who family says is a foster child, was shot in the shoulder but is expected to survive. "I just left the hospital and the child is currently in surgery in good condition," said Chief Lanier.

The identity of the the second victim is being withheld at this time, because the child is a potential witness in the case.

Police are still hoping for a better suspect description; currently they know only that there were two shooters.

This case remains under investigation by detectives from the department's Homicide and Sexual Offenses Branch. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or 1-888-919-CRIME.

Additionally, anonymous information may be submitted to D.C. Crime Solvers at 1-800-673-2777 and to the department's TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411. If the information provided by the caller to the Crime Solvers Unit leads to an arrest and indictment, that caller will be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

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