Metropolitan Police arrested a man in the shooting of a D.C. Housing Authority police officer near the Navy Yard early Thursday, ending a second barricade situation involving wounded officers in Southeast in as many weeks.
Authorities said the suspect and a woman with him were taken into custody around 9 a.m. following a parking garage standoff with SWAT team members securing the scene and helicopters buzzing overhead.
Police said the barricade situation began after the suspect, who was trespassing inside a senior living facility, shot and wounded the Housing Authority officer in the abdomen about 5:45 a.m. in the 400 block of M Street SE.
The man opened fire on other officers who gave chase while the wounded officer was rushed to a hospital, police said. The six-year veteran officer is expected to survive.
Authorities evacuated residents in nearby buildings, and an elementary school was placed on lockdown.
The incident is the second in February in which a shooter fired on city police in Southeast. A Valentine’s Day assault left three officers wounded amid an hour-long barricade.
“It’s very disturbing. The violence seems to be escalating,” Chief Michael Reese, the head of the Housing Authority’s police division, said Thursday. “It’s just a challenging time right now for our law enforcement officers and the community at large.”
Chief Reese said housing officers arrived at the senior living facility for a report of two “unwanted guests.” Officers tried to get the man to leave, but he refused and began fighting with a Housing Authority officer who moved in to arrest him.
The suspect shot the officer during a struggle and fired on officers in the lobby and outside the building as he ran away, Chief Reese said.
The man eventually holed up in a parking garage at the Arris Apartments. He remained there for nearly three hours before being taken into custody.
Chief Reese said the Metropolitan Police Department led the barricade response, which included aerial support and SWAT officers stationed along roads and alleyways near the garage.
Police did not identify the suspect and did not say if they recovered the firearm used to wound the officer.
Charges against the shooting suspect were not immediately announced. The woman is facing charges of unlawful entry.
D.C. Council members Kenyan McDuffie, at-large independent, and Trayon White, Ward 8 Democrat, were at the scene to comment on violence against police officers.
“It is deeply disturbing that we find ourselves, yet again, at a scene with yellow tape [and] with gunshots shells on the ground,” Mr. McDuffie said. “This is steps away from a school where parents and kids expect to be safe. And so I’m thankful for law enforcement … making an arrest. Now we need to bring those individuals to justice for what they’ve done.”
An Arris Apartments resident said he was awakened by the sound of the low-flying helicopter and SWAT officers shouting in the streets below.
The resident, who asked not to be named, said the SWAT officers were ordering the residents to evacuate because of the barricade just steps away from the apartment complex’s entrance.
“[The officers] were yelling to people, saying ‘You’re not safe’ and that they need to run away,” the resident said, who joined the rest of his neighbors in another building lobby near their home.
Another Arris resident told The Washington Times that building management didn’t alert tenants about the barricade “until hours after the incident happened.”
“My boyfriend left our unit, walking directly into an active shooter situation,” the female resident said.
Thursday’s standoff comes two weeks after the Feb. 14 barricade in Southeast in which three police officers were shot as they tried to serve an animal cruelty arrest warrant.
Authorities said Stephen Claude Rattigan unleashed a barrage of bullets as officers tried to force their way through his front door. Twelve hours passed before he surrendered to authorities, periodically firing at and hitting cars and police vehicles on the street.
Three officers were wounded and released from a hospital the next day.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Mr. Rattigan is in the country illegally from Jamaica. The agency said he was deported before but sneaked back into the U.S.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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