Police shoot, kill 1 person in Washington, D.C. following foot chase

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Southeast D.C. neighborhood is reeling after a brief Wednesday foot chase ended with a Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia officer shooting an unidentified person that at least one woman said was a juvenile.

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham confirmed the shooting happened just before 4 p.m. in a neighborhood where officers were working a tip that there were guns in a vehicle, WUSA9 reported.

Newsham said during a news conference that when officers approached the vehicle in question, the suspects fled on foot and an officer fired their weapon, striking a male.

“We believe the subject had a gun at the time,” Newsham said, noting the victim was later pronounced dead at a hospital and two guns were retrieved from the scene.

An unidentified woman can be heard during a recording of the news conference saying the victim was 17 years old and unarmed. She yelled, “Unacceptable” as Newsham finished his remarks, NBC4 reported.

Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White, who was on the scene following the shooting, told WUSA9 that he had spoken with the mother of the victim.

“We’ve seen this narrative too many times in America, and now it’s hitting home,” White said. “I talked to his mom about 15 minutes ago, and we want to figure out what’s on the body camera footage, to figure out if he was running away, why was he shot? [Police] said two weapons were recovered, but when the question was asked, ‘Was he armed?’ there was no straight answer, so we want to get the facts of what happened to this young man.”

Community members have gathered to protest the shooting and were headed toward the police department’s 7-D headquarters, NBC4 reported.

In a video obtained by WUSA9, neighbors can be heard saying “police shot one of the kids” and trying to determine who was shot.

Black Lives Matter D.C. tweeted the following in response to the shooting:

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