What to Know
- A young man was shot and killed about two blocks from the school.
- Witnesses said a woman was shot as she was walking from her car toward her home.
- Former Mayor Vincent Gray said there have been 20 fatalities in the area, compared to six at the same time last year.
Two people were shot and killed Monday in an area that has seen a recent rise in the number of shooting deaths this year.
Three other people were shot in other locations around the city, making five total shootings in the city on Monday.
"We are horrified by what we saw today," said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. "It's a level of violence that is not acceptable in our city, and we are going to put every single resource, police and otherwise, in the neighborhoods to get rid of this violence."
Metropolitan police were called to the 4800 block of Texas Avenue, Southeast, around midday and found the body of a man in an alley between a Valero gas station and an apartment building. Police locked down a nearby elementary school as a precaution but later released the students to their parents.
Police were called to the 100 block of 49th Street, Southeast, shortly around 3:45 p.m., where they found a woman, unconscious and not breathing. Witnesses said she was walking to her house when six shots were fired, and she fell to the ground.
Police said the woman died at the scene, and homicide detectives are investigating. Police said the two fatal shootings were connected but did not specify how they were connected. They are asking the community to help them catch the shooters.
"We need people to talk to us," said MPD Chief Cathy Lanier. "There's ways you can talk to us anonymously. The reason we've been able to take violent offenders off the streets so far and all the way up through today is because people talk to us."
Former Mayor Vincent Gray, a candidate for the Ward 7 council seat, said there have been 20 fatalities in the area, compared to six at the same time last year.
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"This is an outrage that this kind of thing would happen period but then happen in broad daylight?" Gray said. "We're right here in the middle of a well-trafficked intersection, where pedestrians are going back and forth. When are we going to see someone get killed innocently walking down the street. It is time for this to be over."
Police searched the area, bringing in K-9 units to hunt down evidence. They said they will be looking at video from a crime camera at the location of the first shooting.
The victims from the shooting have not been identified.
Three other people were shot in other locations around the city. Mayor Muriel Bowser will join Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier later Monday to discuss the violence throughout the city