Residents Recount Police Shooting of Armed Woman

A woman armed with a knife was shot by a D.C. police officer Saturday evening during a fire in Northeast, police said.

Fire and EMS responded to a fire in the 5300 block of Clay Terrace shortly after 6:15 p.m.. They found fire coming from a row house.

As firefighters fought the fire, police got a call for a woman with a knife, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. The woman confronted the officer with the knife, she said.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting are not clear. Video from the scene shows only a small part of the confrontation.

Lanier said the officer made multiple calls to the 22-year-old woman, asking her to drop the knife. The officer fired one round, Lanier said.

“Officers have to handle on an individual basis what their perception of threat is and how they feel comfortable responding to that,” Lanier said.

Sources tell News4 the woman was shot in the shoulder. She is in stable condition at an area hospital, according to her sister.

The house that caught fire was their mother's, and another sister is charged with assaulting a police officer, which the family denies is true.

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