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Evening shift officers in District 1 started out Friday night like most Friday nights: unsure of how many calls they'd have to respond to but knowing it'll likely be plenty.

Friday and Saturday nights are known for being busy, officers said, but by the end of the evening a message — "2,697. A new record" — flashed across police cruisers' computer screens.

Prince George's County received the highest number of calls for service ever during the 24-hour period on March 27, surpassing records set during the 2002 D.C. sniper incidents, Prince George's County Police spokesman Henry Tippett said.

Director of Public Safety Vernon Herron said there's usually a high volume of calls when the weather warms up and that more aggressive police patrols could account for the high call volume.

"You'll find out in police work that there are peaks and valleys," he said. "There would be nights when there's one call after another and some nights when things level off or even at a low peak. So it's not like television that every minute of the day you're responding."

Herron also said the county, like the rest of the nation, is seeing an increase in property crimes as the economy worsens.

The night of March 27 began relatively slowly for Cpl. Richie Vargas, a 19-year veteran on the force. He spent the hours between 6 and 9 p.m. patrolling streets, pulling someone over for running a stop sign and responding to a loud music call.

"The fact that it's 9 p.m. and it's quiet — that's a good thing," he said while driving in Langley Park.

Minutes later, a call came in about a suspect running from an officer in Mount Rainier. Vargas turned his lights and sirens on and accelerated to Bunker Hill Road. Once there, he saw other officers standing next to a handcuffed man sitting on the curb. He asked if they were fine.

Then another call: 15th and Merrimac, five gunshots.

"We're running priority," he said.

As he raced back to Langley Park, the incident unraveled over the dispatch: two people shot, 15th and Merrimac, someone still shooting in the intersection.

Vargas pulled up in front of the Langley Park Boys and Girls Club, where inside parents and children were celebrating the end of their basketball season with a banquet. The shooting was over and two men, within a block of each other, were wounded. Officers cleared the area for paramedics, unrolled police tape and controlled the gathered crowd.

Vargas asked one victim questions in Spanish as he held his bleeding leg. He was sitting on a concrete path only a few feet away from the Boys and Girls Club building.

Boys and Girls Club director Julie Moses stood in the rain with a group of teens and parents as Sgt. David Lloyd combed a grassy field for shell casings.

"It's the economy," Moses said. "It's going to get worse. … Our boys could have gotten shot."

According to Tippett, two men, dressed in black and with handguns, attempted to rob the victims and may have fled in a white vehicle.

After waiting for investigators to clear the area, Lloyd drove to Adelphi. Lloyd is the sergeant in charge of half of District 1, which includes Langley Park, Adelphi and Chillum. He responds to calls and oversees officers in his sector.

As he patrolled around an apartment complex, a call came in: shooting at the Red Top gas station on East West Highway. He had driven by the gas station 10 minutes earlier on his way to Adelphi.

Paramedics rolled the man who had been shot into an ambulance, and he didn't seem to be seriously injured. Officers cleared the area and interviewed people on the scene.

There was some talk about a white getaway car, although it wasn't clear so early in the investigation if it was connected to the previous shooting. The prospect of it, though, frustrated Lloyd.

"We can play this game all night," Lloyd said. "You can't keep up. You just can't keep up."

After ensuring investigators were handling the crime, Lloyd sped off to another incident: an assault and possible attempted rape of a woman in Chillum.

Then another call: a suspect fleeing the scene of a robbery on Princeton Avenue in College Park.

As Lloyd approached Route 1 around 11:30 p.m., a huge flash lit up the sky. The suspect had crashed into a light pole near the Xtra gas station on Route 1 after destroying a nearby bus stop.

As smoke billowed from the crashed car, Lloyd delegated tasks to officers and helped stop traffic along the busy road. He marveled at the bus stop—now bent and across the street— and declared that if people had been waiting for a bus, they would be dead now.

The ambulance took the suspect away and officers took pictures and reopened Route 1, and evening-shift officers began wrapping up their work.

"The rest of my night is cleaning up messes and writing up reports," Lloyd said as he drove back to the District 1 station, with the dispatcher screen on his computer, which had only a smattering of calls five hours before, now filled.

E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.