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An hour after a man shot indiscriminately in the Van Ness neighborhood on a busy Friday afternoon, Raymond Spencer updated the Wikipedia page for the nearby Edmund Burke School.
“An armed man shot at the school on April 22, 2022,” Spencer wrote. “The suspect is still at large.”
Police later identified Spencer of Fairfax, Virginia, as a person interested in the shooting, before announcing that the suspect was found dead that night in a nearby Van Ness apartment surrounded by firearms and ammunition.
On Saturday, DC Police Chief Robert J. Conti III said the gunman fired more than 100 rounds from a long pistol and confirmed reports that bullet holes had been found in buildings in the area.
“There will probably be a lot of bullet holes that we will find,” he said. “This investigation will continue for some time.”
On Friday, Conti said Spencer was the gunman he was looking for, saying police were no longer looking for Spencer after discovering that the suspected gunman had committed suicide when tactical officers stormed his door.
Police said four people were injured in the shooting in the Van Ness area, including a man in his 50s, a woman in her 30s, another woman who was shot and a 12-year-old girl.
Until Saturday morning, little was known about the suspect. Authorities did not say whether the shooter targeted Burke, whether he attended or had anything to do with the school, or what he had to do with the Van Ness neighborhood. But authorities said Spencer’s online fingerprint gave an idea of the shooting, which sent one of Columbia’s busiest roads into a panic and fired armored vehicles and helicopters into the area during a frantic search for the shooter.
Law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said investigators had investigated social media posts attributed to a user named Raymond Spencer online, including 4chan, an online message board with millions of users. The user wrote: “Dear God, please forgive me” in a message, four minutes after the announcement of the shots.
Suspect in the shooting, in which the wounded 4 were found dead, officials say
The following posts seem to have mocked the police: “They’re in the wrong part of the building right now looking for XD.” The user later wrote, “I’m waiting for the police to catch up.”
Conti said the graphic video posted online on Friday, showing what appears to be the shooting, is authentic, although it is unclear when it was released. The video shows the glass walkway of Burke School, covered with posters from the recent Clue-themed financial aid auction. The sound of gunfire erupts and one of the glass panels shatters.
On Wikipedia, Spencer last updated his user page on Friday at 3:58 p.m., just after the shooting. The page says that he is an “AR-15 lover” in his biography.
His relatives could not be contacted immediately. In Fairfax County, police are also waiting at the Fair Lakes Circle on Friday night, a site believed to be Spencer’s home.
“We have identified a possible residence and are closely monitoring the area,” Fairfax County Police said in a statement.
The shooting on Friday afternoon shook a residential area in Washington. Shortly before 3:30 p.m., police cars raced down Connecticut Avenue and nearby schools were closed. The parents of students sheltered in nearby schools feared the worst, and police officers shouted at passers-by to “move” and “get off.”
In a letter to the city, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) called Friday’s shooting a “heartbreaking day for our community” and condemned the continuing gun violence in the area.
“Unfortunately, tonight I looked into the eyes of the parents, who were horrified and they were horrified, thinking about what could happen to their children,” the mayor said in a letter. “This epidemic of gun violence in our country, easy access to firearms – must stop.
She writes about children in the community who have been sheltered for hours and residents who have been escorted from their homes by police.
“Four people, including one child, were injured in a brief but devastating act of violence – the second of four shootings in our city today,” Bowser said. “All because a man who didn’t have a job had a gun, got access to one and used it to terrorize the school community.”
Photos: The scene after the shooting on Connecticut Avenue
The suspect was found on the fifth floor in the AVA Van Ness apartment building, which overlooks Burke School, where police believe he may have shot from the balcony of the apartment, Conti said. The chief said the apartment had been “arranged like a sniper” and that a tripod had been found among the weapons and ammunition. It was not clear early Saturday whether Spencer lived there, in addition to his home in Fairfax, or what his affiliation with the AVA was.
The man shot himself, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation.
Jackie Rollins, who lives in the AVA apartment building on the floor below the shooter, said she was watching something on Netflix when she heard the shots, but wasn’t sure what it was.
“I heard the shots, but I didn’t realize they were shots because I’ve never heard a gun except on TV or in the movies,” said Rollins, 57. “And it wasn’t until my grandson – I guess he saw something on the news – that I found out.”
She turned on local news, whose cameras kept showing her building, and then saw heavily armed police on a nearby street. Police later told her they would have to evacuate the building soon. She said she had lived in the building for about 18 months and had seen the alleged shooter several times, but did not know much about him.
“I just can’t understand how you have so little to do with human life,” she said.
At about 10 pm, Rollins was still waiting for police to allow her and several other residents of the building to return.
“This is a great place,” she said. This is the first of its kind and, hopefully, the last.
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