WASHINGTON — Police are investigating after two children were shot while getting off a Metrobus in Northwest D.C. Wednesday evening.
According to a spokesperson from the Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD), the shooting happened on or near a Metrobus in the area of 14th Street and Fort Stevens Drive just before 4:15 p.m.
In a press conference Wednesday night, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said several people got onto the Metrobus and began to assault another person onboard. The fight later moved off the bus and onto the sidewalk and street, where one person involved in the fight took out a gun and opened fire.
Contee said that gunfire hit two children who are 6 and 9 years old. The young boy and girl were getting off the bus when they were shot. A third victim, only identified as a man, was found at a nearby apartment, according to Contee.
All three victims were taken to area hospitals for help with serious injuries and are expected to survive.
Police are now on the lookout for a man in his 20s wearing dark pants and a dark jacket in connection to the shooting.
Contee called the shooting unacceptable and upsetting.
"These are two of our kids that were shot on the bus, or as they got off the bus and that's very disturbing to me, I know it's very upsetting for the mayor and for everybody else that's standing behind me whose coming to work, day in and day out to make sure that the citizens and the kids of our city are safe," said Contee. "I mean, this is unacceptable, man.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser joined Chief Contee at the press conference. She called the shooter "an idiot with a gun."
"All [the children] were doing was riding the bus, coming home from school and an idiot with a gun shot it indiscriminately and shot two children," said Bowser. "And as a community, we all have to feel the same sense of lost innocence that I think all of us standing here today feel."
Detectives are asking for the public's help identifying and locating any of the suspects.
As for the shooter, Contee had one simple message: turn yourself in.
"The person who is responsible for this, for the shooter, turn yourself in to Metropolitan Police Department," Contee said. "You shot two children and that's unacceptable."
If you have any information, contact the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) at (202) 727-9099 or text the department's tip line at 50411.
This shooting comes less than two months after a 17-year-old girl and a man were injured during a shooting on Metrobus in Southeast D.C. Police said two young men got into a fight on the bus, and one pulled out a gun and opened fire. The bullet struck the victim and then ricocheted and struck a bystander, a 17-year-old.
This is a developing story. More details will be added as they become available.
A man was shot in the leg and a 17-year-old girl suffered a gunshot wound to her toe in the incident. Both were conscious and breathing when police arrived.