A mass shooting in Washington DC has left 1 person dead and 5 injured, the police said.
The DC police department had tweeted “Critical Incident Alert: MPD has responded to the 1500 block of F Street NE for a shooting. Preliminary reports of multiple victims. Updates to be provided from the on-scene PIO. Media briefing area will be shared shortly.”
Metropolitan Police have also added that a media briefing, about the same, will take place at 16th & F Street NE.
At the briefing, the cops shared that all the victims were males and had been rushed to area hospitals.
While no lookout has been shared with the public at the time, the Metropolitan Police fielded a couple of questions from the press saying that there’s no indication that the victims were shooting at each other, but it’s being investigated. They added that the shooting took place outside, on the Azeeze Bates property.
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Authorities say they don’t know why shots were fired and are trying to get to the bottom of the matter. They’ve reached out to the community for help and offered avenues to share reports anonymously.
Cops don’t know if the victims know each other, but they’re in the same neighbourhood so the police are working with the assumption that some of them might know each other.
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Chief Robert Contee said he was “angered and saddened” by the incident because of the investments made to stem the tide of gun violence in the community which seem to be in vain when such incidents take place. The MPD chief added that residents don’t deserve to witness shootings or feel unsafe in their residential complexes either.
At the briefing, it also came up that the property has seen some troubling incidents in the past and the MPD acknowledged knowing about them.