Norwich ― Two people were shot and one of them died Wednesday night in an incident police are calling a “targeted attack.”

Police said officers were called to Cedar Street at 7:50 p.m. for reports of a disturbance and found one man with a gunshot wound. Police learned that the man, after he was shot, had crashed his vehicle with a passenger but was unsure where the car was located.

The crashed vehicle was discovered on its side, 50 feet into the woods at the end of School Street, which intersects with Cedar Street. That’s where Norwich firefighters found the passenger still trapped inside.

Norwich Fire Battalion Chief Patrick Curtin, in a statement, said firefighters stabilized the vehicle using technical rescue equipment and freed the man from the vehicle. He was taken by ambulance to Backus Hospital in critical condition. Police later learned that the man in the crashed vehicle had also sustained a gun shot wound and died from his injuries at the hospital.

Police are still sorting out details of the incident, such as whether the two men were in the vehicle when they were shot. It is also unclear whether the man found with the crashed vehicle died from a gunshot wound or from injuries sustained in the crash. Police said the cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Police, in a statement, said there does not appear to be a threat to the public at this time and they continue to investigate.

There was little evidence of the shooting in the Cedar Street neighborhood on Thursday. One resident, who asked not to be identified, said the area was abuzz with police and fire department activity until late into the night on Wednesday, with Cedar Street, School Street and Schoolhouse Lane all closed to traffic.

There was obvious evidence of a car crash at the end of the dead-end School Street, with torn up underbrush and broken tree limbs.

Police are withholding the identities of the two men pending notifications of their families.

Wednesday’s apparent homicide is one in a spate of shootings this year that includes the fatal shooting in May of 19-year-old Camaury Norman-Clack. Police are seeking 19-year-old Stancovitch Fabre in connection with that shooting.

The apparent uptick in violent crime led law enforcement officials from New London, Norwich, and the Mashantucket and Mohegan tribal nations to meet in August to discuss an expansion of the state-funded Project Longevity, a gun violence reduction program aimed at addressing violent crime across the region.

Norwich police did not return calls seeking further information about Wednesday’s shooting.

g.smith@theday.com