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A taking pictures in a closely traveled a part of northwest Washington, D.C., on Friday afternoon left 4 folks wounded and prompted the police to have residents and college students within the space shelter in place as they looked for an assailant.
These injured within the taking pictures had been two adults and a lady, the Metropolitan Police Department said. One man and one girl had been in steady situation Friday night, and a lady was in steady situation with minor wounds, the police mentioned. A fourth sufferer, a girl, had been grazed by a bullet.
Throughout a information convention at about 7:30 p.m., the police mentioned they had been trying to find a “person of interest,” Raymond Spencer, 23, of Fairfax, Va., whom they wish to query. Mr. Spencer’s identify emerged “primarily based upon the issues now we have seen on social media,” mentioned Stuart Emerman, assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police Division. The police mentioned they didn’t have anybody in custody.
“We wouldn’t have any motive presently,” Chief Emerman mentioned at an earlier briefing. “We have no idea the total particulars of what occurred. However we proceed to ask the general public to simply keep away from the world as we proceed to analyze.”
Officers responded to the 2900 block of Van Ness Avenue N.W., off Connecticut Avenue, at about 3:20 p.m., and had been conducting sweeps “in a number of buildings,” the police mentioned. The Police Division suggested these within the Cleveland Park and Van Ness areas to remain inside. Chief Emerman mentioned the police had not decided the place the pictures got here from.
Potential video of the assault circulated on-line and depicted bursts of fast gunfire from an elevated location. The police mentioned they had been conscious of the video however couldn’t authenticate it.
“There’s a social media video that’s out,” Chief Emerman mentioned, “however now we have not but been capable of authenticate that that’s even this scene, that’s even immediately or that’s even right here in the USA. We’re nonetheless engaged on that.”
Hours after the taking pictures, dozens of police vehicles and emergency automobiles remained on Connecticut Avenue, with a number of blocks nonetheless closed to site visitors. Extra emergency automobiles, together with a truck adorned with the insignia of Homeland Safety and Emergency Administration, had been nonetheless arriving on the scene.
Laila, a freshman at Edmund Burke College who declined to share her final identify, mentioned that she was strolling from a CVS retailer towards the varsity when she heard the primary spherical of pictures. She thought it was building noise.
“Then the second spherical of pictures occurred and my associates had been operating,” she wrote in a message on Instagram. She and others had been informed that there was a shooter within the space. She and her associates ran to her home close by, the place they waited for extra data, she mentioned.
Mother and father waited for his or her kids outdoors the varsity. The police mentioned {that a} household reunification web site had been established on the Cleveland Park Library, on the 3300 block of Connecticut Avenue.
One girl, who requested to be recognized solely by her first identify, Birtukan, mentioned her 13-year-old daughter attends Edmund Burke. She was strolling to choose up the kid at round 3:30 p.m. when her daughter texted her to say to not come to the varsity.
“Are you secure,” the textual content learn. “I like you.”
The taking pictures additionally occurred close to pupil housing on the College of the District of Columbia, the university said on Twitter.
“There’s an lively shooter that’s nonetheless on the free,” mentioned Kenrick Thomas, a spokesman for U.D.C. The varsity’s Van Ness campus, he mentioned, “is on lockdown till additional discover.”
Petra Hoke, 24, lives in an residence constructing throughout the road from the AVA Van Ness residence constructing that seemed to be the middle of the police exercise.
She mentioned she didn’t hear the gunfire however heard plenty of sirens that she first attributed to a passing motorcade, which is a standard incidence on Connecticut Avenue.
However then she heard helicopters, prompting her to depart the constructing to attempt to see what was occurring.
She described a scene of about 100 regulation enforcement officers and a number of other armored automobiles clogging the road. She mentioned closely armed officers had been escorting folks from the AVA Van Ness constructing in teams of 10 or 15. At one level, she mentioned, she noticed about 30 officers swarm the constructing.
She mentioned she had lived within the neighborhood for 3 years. “That is the primary time I’ve heard any like this,” she mentioned.
Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington mentioned on the information briefing on Friday night time that the nation has skilled “an excessive amount of” gun violence and that folks shouldn’t be afraid to take their kids to high school.
“I needed to look in mother and father’ eyes tonight who had been terrified,” she mentioned, “they usually had been terrified pondering of what may occur to their kids.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Twitter that it was serving to the native authorities with the investigation of the taking pictures. Chief Emerman mentioned that officers from the U.S. Secret Service, the F.B.I., the U.S. Park Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been additionally on the scene.
Christopher Mele contributed reporting and Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
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