Two adults and a child were shot dead Friday afternoon in the Van Ness area of northwestern District of Columbia, police said, sparking a backlash from police. Tactical officers could be seen running along Connecticut Avenue NW; others had drawn their weapons.
The search for the suspect or suspects continues. Police are questioning several witnesses, but no one has been detained, they said at around 5:40 p.m. on Friday.
Officers were shown escorting a man in handcuffs about an hour earlier, but an assistant police chief later said several people had fled the area due to the sound of gunshots.
“At the moment, we have no suspects in custody,” the assistant chief said. “We are questioning several witnesses. As would naturally be the case during an incident like this, several people fled the area, so we stopped several people to investigate witnesses with them.”
“If they are not involved in the incident, yes, they will be released,” he said.
As the situation escalated, armed officers rushed to evacuate residents from an apartment building on Van Ness Street. Some residents ran barefoot or in socks, a video shows. Officers appear to be clearing out batch residents, as evacuations have been carried out periodically.
Police advised people to avoid the area and take shelter on the spot.
The three victims were taken to hospitals, where they are receiving medical treatment. The assistant chief said two of the victims were in critical condition but stable. The victim suffered a minor gunshot wound, police said.
The incident is concentrated in block 2900 on Van Ness NW, police said, although they initially identified the location as block 4100 on Connecticut Avenue NW, which is around the corner. Much of the activity seemed to be centered around the AVA apartment building on Van Ness Street near Connecticut, with employees coming in, out, and standing outside.
A number of streets in the area are closed. Connecticut Avenue NW is closed from the streets of Porter to Albemarle.
Initial calls for help, which came on Friday around 3:20 p.m., reported an active shooter, police calls revealed. It was not immediately clear whether this was the case.
Metropolitan and Secret Service officials have been spotted responding in the area, as well as FBI agents. Helicopters were heard flying over them.
Armed secret service agents were spotted escorting residents along the sidewalks of the bustling urban area, walking first and running later.
Witnesses said they heard several shots.
A message from the Alert DC system warned people to “actively threaten” and “take shelter if you’re around.”
The Van Ness campus of the University of Columbia is closed. Students and other members of the university community are advised to take shelter on site.
The mother of a student at a nearby school, Edmund Burke, a private school for grades 6-12, told News4 that her son said he heard gunshots and then the students hid.
“We are literally hiding and hiding,” another father said as his child took shelter at the school. He said he saw broken windows.
“This is the worst nightmare any parent can have,” said the father of two students at the school.
There has never been a shooter at the school, police said.
A law student from Howard University was driving in the area with a friend when he heard that the shooting was starting.
“We heard gunshots so close to us that we stopped the car,” she said. “All the cars just stopped. And then we all stopped; we didn’t know what to do … So we kept driving for a while and then another round started. And they just kept going. “
“There were so many shots,” she said.
Police said there was a place to gather the family at the library in Cleveland Park at 3310 Connecticut Avenue NW.
The bustling neighborhood is home to a dense mix of residential buildings, restaurants, businesses, office buildings and schools.
Stay tuned to NBC Washington for more details on this evolving story.
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