1 dead, more than 20 injured in shooting at Washington D.C. block party
(The AEGIS Alliance) – WASHINGTON D.C. – A teenager was killed and more than 20 other people were injured in a shooting incident that happened at a Washington D.C. block party on Saturday night.
Authorities are looking for multiple gunmen who fired gunshots at a social gathering that happened on Saturday night at Dubois Place SE and 33rd Street, according to Police Chief Peter Newsham with the Metropolitan Police. Newsham identified 17-year-old Christopher Brown as the only one who was fatally shot as of Sunday morning.
Police responded to a shooting at a Washington, D.C. neighborhood on August 9, 2020. Brown was transported to a local hospital where his death was pronounced. A police officer who has not been identified is in life-threatening critical condition, Newsham stated.
Other people who were injured at the party have non-life-threatening injuries. There was an argument that broke out at the party and multiple weapons broke out as a result. A motive for the incident is not yet clear.
“We have at least three shooters because we have at least three separate locations where gunshots were fired, and it’s my understanding that the shots went off simultaneously,” Newsham said.
A preliminary investigation found that the shooting involved handguns.
Newsham confirmed officers were at the scene of the block party, who were not permitted to be there. The police chief said large gatherings like this one were too dangerous to be held during the coronavirus pandemic because of the spread of COVID-19.
The police response wasn’t big enough to break up the block party, which Newsham said hundreds of people were there.
Photo of the block party taken by a Washington D.C. resident.
D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser commented that several people with “no regard for human life” made attacks at the block party.
“It’s very important that as a community we have zero tolerance for this activity, that we support the Metropolitan Police Department when they’re going to have to make very difficult decisions in breaking up these events,” Bowser stated.
Bowser warned the community that people could be jailed while breaking up parties or large gatherings that are in violation of a district’s law, where gatherings of over 50 people are currently restricted.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
