At least two men were killed and another three were shot in the Brentwood area of D.C. on Wednesday night, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
James Cooper, a 47-year-old Maryland husband and father, was among the dead. He had been visiting his mother, Denise Beidleman, she said as she wept.
“My son is dead! My son is dead! My son didn’t do nothing to nobody. He didn’t do nothing. He was a good man,” she said.
Cooper grew up with the other man who was killed, Beidleman said.
“I seen them laying side by side on the ground with white sheets on them. [First responders] wouldn’t let me get to my baby. They wouldn’t even let me go nowhere near him,” she said.
The shooting happened in the 1400 block of Saratoga Avenue NE at the Brookland Manor Apartments at about 9:50 p.m. Officers were already in the area, a block away, when the shooting occurred, and they responded to the sound of gunfire, police said.
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Police found three men shot on that block. Two died at the scene, acting Chief Pamela Smith said. The third was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Minutes later, two other men arrived at a hospital on their own, Smith said. Both of those men had also been shot. One is critically injured, and the other has injuries that are not life-threatening.
Authorities are looking for three suspects who left in a gray SUV.
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The shooting is the latest in a trend of violence in the nation's capital. That violent crime provided the backdrop for a confirmation hearing for D.C.’s acting police Chief Pamela Smith on Wednesday. D.C. has surpassed 200 homicides this year, marking the earliest point in the year the city has reached 200 homicides since 1997.
Police said they believe the victims were targeted during a dispute between two groups.
“We’re having these crew-on-crew senseless arguments where firearms are being introduced when folks have disputes, as opposed to being able to resolve them the way we typically would resolve a dispute,” Smith said.
Residents said shootings happen all the time on Saratoga Avenue, and they’re tired of living in fear.
“We are living in Iraq, right here on this property,” Cheryl Brunson said. “I’ve been living here 31 years. This is the worst I’ve ever seen.”
