A man committed suicide as he was about to be arrested on Friday, April 22, after shooting and wounding four people and triggering a spectacular deployment of security forces in an affluent neighborhood of Washington, police said .
Four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were injured Friday afternoon by gunfire in the Connecticut Avenue-Van Ness neighborhood in the northwest of the US capital, where many embassies are located and schools. Three of the injured, taken to hospital, are in stable condition. The fourth victim, in his 60s, was treated at the scene.
“The suspect we believe to be responsible for this is now dead”, Washington Police Chief Robert Contee said Friday night at a press conference. According to him, the individual committed suicide when the police had just burst into his apartment, located on the fifth floor of a building, in which the investigators discovered “a sniper-type device with a tripod”at least six firearms – including sniper rifles – and “many, many ammunition”.
The shooter’s motive remains unknown, but, “obviously his intention was to kill and injure members of our community”added the police chief.
“Easy access to firearms must end”
A video circulating on social media, apparently filmed from the shooter’s perspective, shows people running for cover under automatic weapon fire. “It looks very authentic”said Mr. Contee, specifying however that the video had to be appraised, and that he did not know if it had been shot live or published a posteriori.
In the afternoon, after being called around 3:20 p.m. local time (9:20 p.m. in Paris), a large number of members of the police, equipped with guns and imposing bulletproof shields, cordoned off the area, confining schools and a university.
The facts took place in a neighborhood in the north-west of the capital, which is rather well-to-do and usually quiet. Many residents were evacuated from the area where numerous detonations sounded, according to videos shared on social networks.
Washington police reported two other shootings in other parts of the capital the same afternoon. Two hundred and twenty-six homicides were counted in the city in 2021, a figure up 14% from 2020. “We are determined to help residents and stop gun violence”declared in front of the press the democrat mayor of the american capital Muriel Bowser. “Easy access to firearms must end. »
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