A quadruple shooting at a busy intersection in Northwest, D.C., Wednesday led police to hold an emergency community meeting Thursday night to address the neighborhood’s rising violence.
Officers with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) are still searching for the gunman, a 5’6” black male wearing all black clothing and a mask, who surveillance cameras captured before the shooting outside of Big Ben’s liquor store. Residents from Truxton Circle and surrounding areas expressed frustration with the MPD’s lacking strategy to deal with mounting shootings at the intersection, which police note hosts a popular market for illicit drugs, reports Fox 5.
Residents are troubled most by the fact the quadruple shooting did not surprise the neighborhood.
“You’ve got to build the relationship,” Joyce Robinson-Paul, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, told Fox 5. “I know that new people and some of the old people want to lock them up and throw away the key. You lock them up and throw away the key, they are coming back out. It may be five years and they are tougher and tougher and tougher. You need to engage our youth in a positive way.”
One victim in the quadruple shooting Wednesday sustained serious injuries, but police say he is in stable condition. The other victims were reported to have non-life threatening injuries. A police officer was also injured after being hit by a car on a patrol bike while responding to the shooting. The officer is in good condition, according to WJLA.
Officials with the MPD said they are working on crime prevention strategies in the area to address the spiraling violence.
“This is the third daylight shooting we have had in the last five weeks,” William Fitzgerald, an MPD commander said at the meeting. “We have had more in daytime when the sun is out than we had in nighttime. For me, it’s just backwards in my head. It shows you the brazenness out there, the mentality that is out there and that is the challenge we face.”
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