Two men were killed and three others were injured Wednesday afternoon when police said two assailants opened fire on a street in Northwest Washington’s Truxton Circle neighborhood, a community that has struggled with crime for years.
The shootings occurred shortly before 1 p.m. near O and North Capitol streets, an area which has seen gentrification alongside persistent gun violence.
Ashan M. Benedict, the D.C. executive assistant police chief, said at least two shooters got out of a small black SUV and opened fire with semiautomatic pistols or rifles at people gathered near a residential building for seniors. He said the shooters then got back in the SUV, which headed west on O Street.
Police said the two men were pronounced dead at the scene, while three others went on their own to hospitals and were being treated for their injuries. One man walking his dog said he heard up to 10 gunshots. The shooting closed streets, and a charter school went into lockdown on the first day of classes.
The Truxton Circle area has long been plagued by crime. The neighborhood is situated in the blocks north of the intersection of New York Avenue and North Capitol Street, where a four-story, castle-shaped liquor store marks a recognizable spot for commuters and residents. The intersection is one of the city’s busiest.
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Benedict said Wednesday’s shooting “might be drug related,” but it was not immediately known if any of the victims had been targeted or were in any way involved in narcotics trafficking. Benedict described the area as a “constant problem for us.”
“This appears to be an open-air drug market,” he said at a news briefing.
Bradley Ashton Thomas, an attorney who has lived in Truxton Circle 31 years and raised his family there, said the neighborhood has experienced “a steady improvement” over the years — with some homes valued at more than $1 million. But quiet periods, he said, are followed by troubling bursts of violence.
Thomas, 68, an advisory neighborhood commissioner for the area, said people “hanging out” on streets is a continuing concern, as is “obvious drug dealing.” When police patrol the area, he said, those loitering “move to a different corner or a different block.”
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“Then they’ll come back,” he said. “It’s kind of a shell game.”
At the scene, police crowded along the sidewalk in front of a residential building for seniors, where a black tent used to shroud homicide scenes had been placed.
In a phone interview, Benjamin Medrano, 27, said he was walking his dog near O and First streets when he heard about “eight to 10” bangs.
He said he thought it was construction until he noticed firetrucks racing toward the area. Medrano, who moved to the neighborhood a few months ago, said he was shocked by the number of shots he heard.
“I didn’t think it would happen while I was walking my dog in the middle of the day,” he said. “It’s become clear we moved to a pretty dangerous area.”
Medrano moved to the Truxton Circle neighborhood from Fairfax City. He said it was the first time he had ever heard gunshots.
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D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5), who represents the area where the shooting occurred, called for police, prosecutors and judges to make sure the shooters are held “accountable.”
“These acts of violence need to have consequences associated with them,” he said at the scene.
McDuffie said he had been around the corner on Saturday for a community event organized by Cure the Streets, a violence interruption program run by the Office of the Attorney General.
He said they had been handing out backpacks to neighborhood parents and children. “This neighborhood is one that all too often hears the sound of gun shots and sees yellow tape after acts of gun violence,” he said, gesturing to the area that includes three schools. “I’m just really outraged.”
The shooting occurred near Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School, which was having its first day of classes when the shots rang out. The school has preschoolers as young as 3, as well as kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
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Shortly after the shooting, children were seen playing outside the school, going down slides and pushing each other on swing sets as parents lingered nearby.
Tomeika Bowden, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said police told her that the school was locked down for about 20 minutes before classes were dismissed.
Students return next week at D.C. public schools, though teachers have professional development this week.
Olliebelle Green, 54, said in a telephone interview from a hospital that her son, 35-year-old Levon Williams, was among the wounded. She said he was shot in the side and was “coherent.”
The area is near a fatal shooting that occurred hours earlier, on Florida Avenue NW, though police said they do not believe the two incidents are related. In that shooting, a man from Virginia was killed and a woman was injured.
Before the fatal shootings on O Street, police said 136 people had been killed in the District this year, a 4 percent increase over this time in 2021. There have been at least three previous homicides in the Truxton Circle area this year.
Moriah Balingit contributed to this report. This developing story has been updated.
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