WASHINGTON — Police in D.C. are investigating a pair of shootings that happened about 45 minutes apart in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the 4300 block of Livingston Road Southeast around 12:50 a.m. after receiving a 911 call reporting a shooting in the area. When police arrived they found a man with a gunshot wound to the upper torso. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Police said the man has since died from his injuries and detectives are investigating the shooting as a homicide.
Police have identified the man as 26-year-old Rasheed Cureton, of no fixed address.
Lt. McCall Tyler, Watch Commander for MPD's Seventh District, said police do not have any information about a possible suspect or suspects in this case. The circumstances surrounding the shooting are still under investigation.
About 45 minutes later, Lt. Tyler said officers in the Seventh District received a report of the sound of gunshots from Shotspotter in the 3000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., near Parkland Place Southeast. Tyler said a man arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound to the upper torso a short time later. He was transported to another hospital for treatment of his injuries.
These two shootings capped a violent day in D.C., in which a total of six people were shot, three of them fatally, within a few miles of each other over the course of about 12 hours. Police say there's no evidence any of the shootings were connected but said the weapons used included an AK-47 assault rifle and an M4 – the preferred weapons on the battlefield of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night, police were called to the 4300 block of 4th Street, where responding officers found a woman and two men shot.
Police say the woman and one of the men were awake and breathing when officers found them. A third victim, a man, was pronounced dead on the scene. Later Thursday, police said the second male victim died from his injuries at the hospital.
Police have identified the two men killed in the triple shooting as 19-year-old Ronald Brown and 41-year-old Tijuan Wilson.
John Branch with the Metropolitan Police Department estimated about 90 rounds were fired in this case.
A few hours earlier, Seventh District officers responded to a shooting in which a pregnant woman was struck three times. Investigators in that case also believe about 100 rounds were fired between two groups. The injured woman is believed to be a bystander.
"When you're targeting a specific person, whatever your motivation is for that, maybe you can kind of understand that," DC Police Commander John Haines said. "But where you're using assault rifles and shooting hundreds, hundreds of rounds -- not in one incident, but in multiple incidents at whoever is out there ... this is why we're pleading with the public. If you know people in possession of illegal firearms especially assault rifles please please please let us know.”
The fear of getting caught in the crossfire is permeating communities and changing how they live their lives.
“As you can see there are no kids outside, no kids. Why? Drive-by shootings. You gotta worry about that. Don’t nobody want their kids out here. I know I don’t. I don’t want my grandkids, my kids, I don’t want them out here and have to worry about hearing gunshots,” a man who asked to remain anonymous said.
Police have not made any arrests in any of these cases. All investigations are ongoing.
Anyone with any information about any of these shootings is asked to contact police at 202-727-9099 or text the department's tip line at 50411. The Metropolitan Police Department currently offers a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone that provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for each homicide committed in the District.
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