WASHINGTON — A man is dead after being shot near the front steps of Bennett Career Institute, a Northeast, D.C. beauty school, on Friday morning.
The shooting was reported around 8:52 a.m. in the 700 block of Monroe Street Northeast after the man was found unconscious and unresponsive at the scene, police said.
The man was walking on the block when a man approached him and fired a gun at him, police said.
The man was taken to a hospital with critical injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after, police said. Police identified the man as 21-year-old De’mari Twyman of Oxon Hill.
"It didn't appear to be random. It looked like the suspect, in this case, targeted the victim for some reason which we don't know," D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said. "A young man lost his life out here today, and it’s just very disturbing to all of us."
After the shooting, the suspect fled the scene towards 8th Street, police said.
The suspect is described as a black man with a slender build and a mustache. They said he was wearing a red jacket with dark clothing underneath with multi-color hair described as red and pink.
It is unknown if the victim was a student at the beauty school, police said.
Luke C Moore High School and Brookland Middle school were on alert with doors locked while police searched or the suspect, but those alerts were lifted by noon, a spokesperson for DC Public Schools said.
Police ask anyone with information on the shooting to contact authorities.
"We really need the public’s help to solve this, to bring some justice for this family," Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said. "This community is outraged. People are tired of the gun violence."
This shooting comes days after D.C. experienced a violent weekend. According to D.C. police, there were a total of seven shootings across the District over the weekend. In six of these, someone was hit by bullets.
MPD said they are continuing to investigate the shootings that happened over the weekend.
So far this year, there have been 26 homicides in D.C. This time last year, there were only 23.
