Two groups of teenagers from rival neighborhoods climbed over the fence of an artificial-turf field in Southeast Washington on Monday to play a pickup game of football at the end of a warm afternoon. Shortly after 6:30 p.m., as the players began to disperse, a dispute erupted between the teams.

Then there were gunshots and a scramble to get away. One youth, 16, was struck in the right leg and thigh as he fled the field, adjacent to D.C. Scholars Stanton Elementary School near Naylor Road and Alabama Avenue. The gunman escaped.

D.C. police said the wounded youth was treated at and released from Howard University Hospital. Authorities said they did not immediately know whether the youth was targeted, whether someone else was or whether the gunman fired randomly into the crowd. No arrests have been made.

The teenager was one of five people wounded by gunfire across the District on Monday night and early Tuesday. None of the injuries were fatal or considered life-threatening, according to D.C. police.

A person was shot about 12:45 a.m. Tuesday in the 1100 block of Owen Place NE, near Gallaudet University. Another person was wounded shortly before 11 p.m. Monday near Yuma and First streets in Southeast. About 9:30 p.m., police said, someone was shot in the 1000 block of 16th Street NE, and a shooting occurred about 7 p.m. on Mount Olivet Road in Northeast.

The shooting on the football field erupted just as a coach in a youth sports league there was arriving for practice, said Michael Zanders, who runs that league. He said the coach heard an argument, then gunshots. He said he has pleaded with District officials to keep close tabs on the field and run off trespassers, but to no avail.

His team, consisting of youths ages 12 to 14, came to practice but was turned away by police because of the violence. The field had become a crime scene.

“We have got to stop these pickup games, because the kids are bringing guns up onto the field,” said Zanders, the 52-year-old director of the Woodland Tigers youth sports program. The very children he wants to help are the ones breaking into his field, which was built with city money and is leased to his organization.

Zanders said the shooting was especially frustrating because he has worked hard to offer opportunities for kids to participate in constructive activities. There are 250 youths ages 5 to 14 in his program, and because of a lack of funding — a combination of city funds, donations and grants — he has turned away children in each of the past three years, he said.

“Last year, I had eight football teams, and I had to stop there because I didn’t have enough equipment,” he said. “We could have a lot more kids up there on that football field doing something positive.”

Later Monday, Zanders discovered that he knows the victim — the 16-year-old had played football in the Woodland Tigers league two years ago. Zanders said he planned to visit the youth at home.