YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) -Two people are dead after a car they were in was riddled with bullets at about 11 p.m. on Interstate 680 North.

A 19-year-old female passenger died on her way to the hospital while the 19-year-old male driver was dead at the scene.

The green Nissan Altima they were driving came to a stop on the freeway just past the Salt Springs exit.

Lt. Mohammad Awad of the detective bureau said the car was severely damaged by gunfire.

“It looks like someone assassinated these two,” he said. “They followed the vehicle. They found the vehicle, and they pulled up next to it and began shooting inside of it.”

The scene stretched for than 300 feet, Awad said, and dozens of shell casings littered the area.

“It could have been larger, but we couldn’t recover any more casings on the freeway,” he said.

An off-duty officer in the area thought what he was seeing was an accident.

Caller: “He said there was one subject unconscious, appears to be blood everywhere inside the vehicle.”

Police Chief Carl Davis said that officers found a pulse on the female victim, but she died after she was taken to Mercy Health Hospital in Youngstown.

These are the first two homicides of the year. Last year Youngstown had 22 homicides.

Police ask that if anyone was on Interstate 680 north between 10:40 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. and saw something unusual, to call detectives at 330-742-8911 or 330-742-8262.

As detectives were working that scene, they were called for two more victims who drove themselves to the hospital. The claimed to have been sitting outside the Steel City bar when they were both grazed by bullets.

Police are not sure of the two shootings are related. Both are still under investigation.

Kyle Alexander and Michael Reiner contributed to this report.