WASHINGTON — Police are investigating after gunfire echoed through a Southeast D.C. neighborhood Tuesday night. The sound of the shots were captured on a neighbor's surveillance camera. At least a dozen shots could be heard in quick succession.
"It's crazy," said Adam Trister, who lives nearby and caught the shooting on surveillance video.
At this point, Trister is beyond frustrated with the amount of shootouts that have happened near his home in the Hill East neighborhood.
"The incident last night was a series of maybe 30 shots which seems excessive," Trister said.
This isn't the first time that this has happened.
"We've obviously seen a significant uptick in violence or violent activity in the Hill East neighborhood particularly concentrated in the 15th, 16th, and 17th streets of Independence," Trister said.
The latest video is from Tuesday, but there is another one from the March 15.
Metropolitan Police Department investigators responded to the call of shots fired in the 1700 block of Independence Avenue, Southeast, just before 9:30 p.m. So far, it appears no one was hit by the bullets, but the investigation continues.
You can hear the sound of the gunshots ringing out in surveillance footage from the camera on his home. Dozens of gunshots are heard in the span of just 10 seconds.
In a follow up post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Trister stitched together other instances of gunfire heard in his Hill East neighborhood, dating back to January of this year.
The sound of gunfire captured again on video during a shootout on 16th near Independence Ave in Jan. 27 and one week prior he has another video from a shooting on Jan. 19.
"I know that police are doing the best they can, they have resource constraints," Trister said. "They're police in this area; I do see that but despite all those actions why do individuals still feel comfortable firing 30 shots at 10:30 at night on a Tuesday night."
We reached out to Councilmember Vincent Gray who represents Ward 7 about this.
He sent WUSA 9 a statement saying, in part, "Presently, MPD has fewer officers than at anytime in decades. The result is that our public safety resources are stretched thinly across the city. Residents are justifiably frustrated and concerned about crime and gunfire."
Gray's spokesperson went on to say, "We are in regular contact with MPD and often request that additional police patrols and other public safety resources be deployed in neighborhoods where crime persists."
Trister said, "It still feels to me that there's not enough being done."
Meanwhile, Trister says he would like local officials and DC Police to be more proactive and communicate with him and other neighbors as things happen.
So far, no arrests have been made in this most recent case. Anyone who may have information that would help investigators is urged to call the Metropolitan Police Department at (202) 727-9099 or text the department's tip line at 50411.
Do you have a news tip on this story or any other story? We want to hear from you. Tell us about it by emailing newstips@wusa9.com.
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