WASHINGTON — A man is dead following a shooting in Southeast D.C. Detectives with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) are investigating the shooting as a homicide, making it the 200th homicide of the year in D.C., and surpassing 2020's homicide total of 198.
Investigators continue to look into the circumstances surrounding the Monday night shooting in the 4700 block of S. Capitol Street SE. The shooting was reported around 10:30 p.m. The victim in this case has not been identified by police, and no arrests have been made.
As the District hits 200 homicides total for the year, officials, in part, are blaming the thousands of illegal guns in D.C. They're partnering with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives to up reward incentives.
Police say they have already recovered 2,000 illegal guns so far this year, exceeding last year's total. The city announced Monday that now if you call with a tip about an illegal gun, you won't have to wait for a conviction to receive a reward of up to $2,500 -- just an arrest and seizure.
Also new, if the firearm is a ghost gun, or one with a conversion device, you could get up to $7,500 thanks to federal money that the ATF is providing at least through the end of this year.
"Even as most types of crime have decreased over time, and despite the District’s strong gun laws, gun violence has been persistent in our city and in most major cities across the country," Councilmember Charles Allen wrote in a statement. "There isn’t one explanation, but we do know that in moments of personal or community conflict or desperation, people have reached for guns they found far too easily, and those guns have been more lethal. And we cannot separate the deep harm of the pandemic on vulnerable communities from the uptick in violence we’re experiencing."
RELATED: DC Police, ATF offering bigger incentive to help remove illegal guns off streets without conviction
The D.C. Police Union, meanwhile, blames police reform measures enacted in June of 2020 for officers leaving the D.C. police force or resigning.
"Since the passage of so-called 'emergency' legislation in June of 2020, 417 police officers have separated from MPD. What is most alarming is that 54% of those that have left have resigned, while only 38% have retired. This means over 225 police officers turned in their badge and walked away. The total strength of the police department is now below 3,400, the lowest number in decades," said union chairman Gregg Pemberton in a statement released Tuesday morning.
Anyone with information related to the shooting on S. Capitol Street is asked to call MPD at 202-727-9099 or text the department's tip line at 50411.
"We owe it to the 200 people taken from us, to the crime survivors who have to live with what bullets destroyed, to their loved ones, and to all those traumatized by the ripple effects of gun violence, to invest in strategies we know work," Allen wrote. "I will continue to advocate on their behalf for a coordinated, transparent, well-resourced, city-wide strategy to end gun violence, and nothing less.”