Three shot, one fatally, in Shaw neighborhood uf Northwest Washington

Three men were shot, one fatally, on Wednesday night in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest Washington, and police said that the attack at a notorious corner may be related to another shooting about a half-hour earlier that injured three people more than six miles away.

Those shootings and others occurred during a violent night across the District that continued into Thursday morning. In all, police said at least nine people were shot between Wednesday night and early Thursday. Two of those victims died and a third, found shot in a vehicle outside a library, suffered life-threatening injuries.

No arrests have been made in any of the shootings, and police said they had no information about possible motives.

The shootings came at the tail end of a violent seven-day stretch in the District, which has seen seven homicides in the last seven days and at least an additional 18 people shot, according to police reports.

“We had a very, very tough night,” D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said at a news conference Thursday. “We’re in touch with all of our people on the street who are passing information along and we will identify the shooters. ... We’re not going to rest until we’re apprehending and bringing to justice anybody who uses a gun in our city.”

Still, homicides are down 23 percent compared to the same period in 2023 — a respite from the quarter-century high in killings recorded in D.C. last year. The District surpassed the 100 homicide count 41 days later this year than it did in 2023, with a daylight shooting last week in Southeast that left two men dead and wounded a 2-year-old girl who was out for a walk with her day-care center classmates.

The first shooting Wednesday night occurred about 6:50 p.m. in the 1800 block of Marion Barry Avenue SE, outside the Anacostia Library. According to a police report, three or four armed men jumped from a vehicle at a stop sign and confronted the driver of a blue Hyundai Sonata.

Chief Pamela A. Smith provides an update on the shooting at 7th and O Streets NW and the shooting in the 300 block of 37th Place SE. pic.twitter.com/bhKxac3LLG

— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) July 25, 2024

The report says the driver sped off, striking one of the armed men, and at least one of the other men started firing a total of 10 shots. The driver crashed outside the library, and police said two women ran from the vehicle. The report says the driver, from Greenbelt, Md., was taken unconscious to a hospital and that homicide detectives are investigating due of the severity of his injuries. The report says the Hyundai was reported stolen from Greenbelt on July 8.

About two hours later, at 8:48 p.m., police said officers responding to a call for gunshots found two men wounded in the 200 block of 37th Place SE, north of Fort Circle Park and near the Benning Ridge community. Police said a third man was also shot there and went to the hospital on his own. Police said the injuries of all three victims were not believed to be life-threatening.

D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith, who briefed reporters on the violence, said authorities are looking for a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee in connection with the 37th Place shooting. A little more than half an hour later, at 9:25 p.m., Smith said a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee was seen speeding away from another shooting, this one near Seventh and O streets in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest Washington.

Smith said police found two men injured at the Shaw shooting scene and that one — identified as 34-year-old Deangelo Jones of Northwest — died at a hospital. She said a third man went on his own to the hospital. The two injured men did not suffer life-threatening wounds, Smith said. A police report says ShotSpotter devices, which detect the sound of gunshots, alerted police to 22 rounds being fired.

The police chief said detectives are investigating whether the same vehicle was used in both shootings, which occurred roughly six miles apart.

The shootings, Smith said, “point to the senseless violence that continues to happen in our community.”

Police had no information about a motive in the Seventh and O streets shooting. The corner just north of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and outside the Kennedy Recreation Center has been an epicenter of violence since the District’s murderous crack era in the late 1980s and early ’90s, when open-air drug markets proliferated. Gentrification has long since altered the landscape. But neighborhood disputes and stubborn violence — fueled by gangs such as the “7th and O Street Crew” — have frustrated residents for generations.

Smith said Wednesday night the blocks around the recreation center have been largely free of crime since March, when seven people were shot at Seventh and P streets NW, two of them fatally, in violence that recalled earlier, deadlier times on those blocks. No arrest has been made in that case.

After those shootings four months ago, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Shaw, Rachelle Nigro, described the generational violence there as “a continuous tragedy” and asked, “How much can this community take?” On Wednesday night, Nigro was back on those same blocks, posting a video of the crime scene on the platform X. “This is just horrific … just unbelievably tragic,” she said. She did not respond to an interview request.

Wednesday night’s violence continued into Thursday.

Police said a man was found fatally shot just before 1:45 a.m. at First and Atlantic streets SE, in the Bellevue neighborhood. They said the victim, identified in a release late Thursday as 36-year-old Calvin Moore, was found in the road.

And about 2 a.m., police said, a woman was shot in the 1400 block of Park Road NW, near the Columbia Heights Metro station. Police said her injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

Rachel Weiner contributed to this report.

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