An 18-year-old woman was shot and killed at a hotel in Friendship Heights, in Washington, D.C.’s first reported homicide of 2024. The search for the shooter is underway.
The new year wasn’t even two hours old when D.C. paramedics were sent to the Embassy Suites Hotel on Military Road NW for the report of a shooting on the seventh floor. They were told on arrival that the victim was in cardiac arrest.
Ashalei Hinds, of Clinton, Maryland, was pronounced dead at the scene, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said.
Hinds was a freshman at Louisiana State University, the school confirmed on Tuesday.
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A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said about 10 people were attending a party inside a hotel room when a shooter opened fire.
Several guests at the Embassy Suites said they heard two gunshots and then screaming at about 1:15 a.m. Each room at the hotel has a picture window next to the door. In the room where the shooting took place, that window was shattered. It's unclear whether it was shattered by gunfire or something else.
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It's not clear if Hinds was the killer's intended target. Police said they were looking for a male who fled the scene wearing black clothing and a black ski mask.
In an update Tuesday, police distributed a photo of the suspect in the crime. He was captured by surveillance cameras, police said.
Investigators also are still looking for as many as six people who were in the room but left before police arrived.
Video shows police vehicles near an entrance to the Embassy Suites less than a block from the Friendship Heights Metro station on the D.C.-Maryland line. Hotel management said they were cooperating with police in the investigation.
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Hinds was killed just after D.C. ended the previous year with 274 homicides. According to preliminary figures released Monday, homicides in 2023 were the highest in more than two decades — since 1997, when there were 302. Homicides were up about 35% from 2022, according to MPD data.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says she is working to reverse this trend with new legislation that has yet to be passed.
Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.
