A series of shootings and a stabbing that killed five in one week are likely part of a drug nexus in Prince George's County, police said Wednesday.

A majority of the homicides were carried out against people who were targeted, Interim County Police Chief Mark Magaw said at a press conference. He added that all county departments were focused on finding those responsible in the killing spree that started Saturday across the southern part of the county.

"This department is totally focused on the homicide," he said. "These homicides do not appear to be random acts."

The victims included a Laurel man gunned down early Tuesday outside of a ballroom in Suitland.  The latest killing was a part of a quadruple shooting Tuesday night in Temple Hills that left a 19-year-old dead along the 4000 block of Norcross Street shortly before midnight.

While the shootings appear to be unrelated, Magaw said preliminary investigations suggest that a number of the killings are drug related.  Large quantities of marijuana were taken from the home of a man also shot to death Tuesday along the 7200 block of Crafford Place in Fort Washington.

The killings are "a part of a drug nexus," he said. "These homicides have our full attention."

Magaw said that the spike in crime in the county is not uncommon and he does not expect it to be ongoing.

County police, he said, are scouring phone records and interviewing witnesses and associates of the victims in search of evidence.

"I expect this cycle of violence to be stopped," he said. "We have to get in front of the crime."

The original version of this story had Interim County Police Chief Mark Magaw's last name misspelled. We regret the error.