D.C. police on Thursday identified two “persons of interest” in a drive-by shooting that injured 13 people this week outside a Northwest apartment complex.
Police officials said they are looking to speak with two 19-year-old men —- Andrew Davon Allen and Craig Wilson — about Monday’s shooting.
“We believe they have information and we’d like to talk with them,” said Cmdr. George Kucik of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division.
Investigators declined to say how the two men were connected to the shooting. In a photo provided by police, Mr. Wilson appears to have a tattoo of a gun on the front of his neck.
Surveillance video captured the early Monday shooting, which occurred around 2:10 a.m. outside Tyler House, a 284-unit affordable housing complex at the corner of the busy intersection of New York Avenue and North Capitol Street. Two dark colored vehicles are seen driving past the complex, with someone firing shots out of the first of the two cars. As the first car passes and the shots are fired, a crowd gathered near the front entrance of Tyler House tries to flee inside the doorway or duck and run. Six of the 13 victims were women and the youngest was a 17-year-old male, according to a police report.
Police also said they were trying to locate a black or dark blue 1999 Mercedes Benz CLK 320 coupe with the D.C. license plate number EF7810, which they believe was connected to the shooting. A separate car has been located by police, said Cmdr. Kucik, who declined to say which car was which in the surveillance video.
Aside from officials previously noting that some of the shooting victims had been at the nearby nightclub, Fur, just prior to the shooting, few details have been provided about the case, including any possible motive. Typically quick to shut down clubs that are linked to violent incidents, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier has made no such request to close Fur in this case.
In the wake of the shooting, D.C. Council member Tommy Wells called for the closure of nightclubs in the area but has since done an about-face, releasing a joint statement with a nightclub owner in which both pledge to work together to make the area safer.
One of the owners of Ibiza Club, which was not open on the evening of the shooting, said he will work with police and people in the neighborhood moving forward after the shooting.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re walking home two blocks from a club, a restaurant or your church — all residents should have an expectation of getting home safely,” Ibiza co-owner Eric Clay said. “As a business owner in a growing community such as NoMa [North of Massachusetts Avenue], I know we have a responsibility to help maintain a safe community; not only for our patrons inside and out of our establishment, but for our surrounding neighborhood as well.”
Management from Fur, the club that many of the victims had left just prior to the shooting, has not responded to a request for comment.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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