The panic will have been short-lived. Hours after four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot dead in Washington on Friday afternoon, a man committed suicide as he was about to be arrested. Three of the injured who were taken to hospital are in stable condition. The fourth victim, in his 60s, was treated at the scene.
“The suspect who we believe is responsible has since passed away,” Washington Police Chief Robert Contee said at a news conference Friday night. According to him, the man killed himself just as police broke into his fifth-floor apartment in a building where investigators discovered “a sniper-type device with a tripod,” at least six firearms — including one sniper rifle — and “lots Ammunition”.
An impressive police force
The shooter’s motive remains unknown, but “apparently his intent was to kill and injure members of our community,” the police chief added. The shooting erupted in the affluent and usually quiet Connecticut Avenue-Vanness neighborhood in the northwest of the US capital, where many embassies and schools are located. A video circulating on social media, apparently filmed from the shooter’s perspective, shows people running for cover under automatic weapon fire. “It looks very authentic,” Robert Contee explained, but stated that this video had to be judged and he didn’t know if it was shot live or released after the fact.
After being called around 3:20 pm local time, members of the security forces, armed with rifles and imposing bulletproof shields, cordoned off the area, trapping schools and a university. According to videos shared on social networks, many residents were quickly evacuated from the area where multiple detonations were heard.
Washington police announced two more shootings in other boroughs of the capital that same afternoon. 226 homicides were counted in the city in 2021, up 14% from 2020. “We are committed to serving residents and stopping gun violence,” Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters in the US capital. “Easy access to firearms must end. »