Five men were shot — two fatally — in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon, police said.
The shooting was reported at the corner of O Street NW and North Capitol Street, just north of New York Avenue in the Truxton Circle neighborhood.
D.C. police officers and D.C. Fire & EMS were called to area for the report of several people shot. Units arrived shortly after 12:45 p.m. and found several people shot in the street.
Police say a dark SUV pulled up and two gunmen jumped out and began shooting.
Two men were pronounced dead at the scene, and three other victims took themselves to a hospital.
Executive Assistant Chief Ashan Benedict described the area as "an open-air drug market" that police routinely patrol.
“Five people were shot today,” he said. “It’s unacceptable.”
According to police, the first call for help came in from three members of the D.C. fire department who happened to be on the block inspecting buildings.
“They were doing inspections in area buildings,” Benedict said. “I don’t have the exact locations, but as they were coming out of one building, they came on to this block and basically walked into this situation.”
The scene is on a busy block near homeless outreach program So Others Might Eat, Dunbar High School and at least two elementary schools. Campuses were locked down as school staff prepared for the new school year.
Police cordoned off the area to investigate. Several streets were closed off around the shooting scene, police said: First Street NW between O and P streets and the 1300 block of N. Capital Street. Metrobuses were rerouted.
Police obtained video from a Tesla that's cameras caught the shooting from multiple angles in high definition.
They were looking for a black 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe with a possible Virginia temporary tag 956515X.
There was no word on what may have led up to the shooting.
The identities of the victims have not been released.
Several hours later Wednesday evening, D.C. police responded to a shooting about four blocks north of the O Street scene, in the unit block of Quincy Place NE. A police spokesperson said two men were shot and taken to hospitals. A third went to the hospital on his own.
The previous night, another deadly shooting occurred about a half-block away. In that incident, a 25-year-old man died and a woman was wounded at Florida Avenue and N. Capitol Street. It wasn't known whether these shootings might be related.
So far this year, 136 people have died in homicides in the District, compared to 131 people at this time last year, according to Metropolitan Police Department data. Overall violent crime is up 2%, and assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 11%.
Violent crime with a gun is up 29% in the past two years compared with the previous two-year period in the police service that includes the shooting scene, according to D.C. police crime statistics. Violent crimes with or without a gun in the same service area are up by 7% in the same period.
Ten homicides were recorded in the past two years in that neighborhood as of Tuesday. Homicides were recorded in the same block of O Street NW Oct. 6 and Feb. 9.
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