Early on Thursday morning, a doorbell camera in Southeast Washington, D.C., captured a shootout.
The Chair of the D.C. Democratic Party posted a video online that shows two people shooting at each other while sprinting down the street.
According to Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officials, the shootout occurred around 3:17 a.m. on the 1300 block of Maple View Place in Southeast.
Officers arrived at the scene and found four vehicles and one residence destroyed, but no injuries.
Gunshots struck Greta Fuller’s home and car.
“It’s been mentally and physically very stressful since that,” Fuller told me. “To see people on a camera running up and down the street shooting at each other and using our cars as protection was very disturbing.”
In fact, Fuller pointed to a bullet hole near her bedroom window.
“I stood next to the window and looked out. “Thank goodness I didn’t come to the window earlier; it could have hit me,” Fuller remarked.
Originally parked across the street was a rental automobile, but now shards of glass have replaced it.
Mona Hunnicutt provided 7News with a photo of her rented car’s damaged windows following a collision.
“I didn’t want to look out the window because if there were shots, I might get shot,” Hunnicutt told me. “I was quite shaken. I was quite nervous and afraid. I had to go to work the next day, but I was almost terrified to go.”
Although the shooting did not damage his property, Jarvis Penny also resides in the neighborhood.
He was still shaken, though, because he could have been on his way to the 24-hour supermarket when the shooting started.
“I walk straight down the street. Now it makes me want to adjust my routine. Now, I’m not going out until 7 a.m. It shouldn’t be this way. Penny replied, “We should be free to walk whenever we want.”
This year, city leaders have boasted lower crime rates.
So far, violent crime has dropped by one-third across the city, and by 36% within a half-mile radius of the early Thursday morning shooting.
“The men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department are following the chief’s lead and her vision in driving down crime in the city,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in an interview with 7News this week.
Regardless of the crime patterns, neighbors say they remain concerned.
“The crime statistics we get show that crime is down, but when you see something like this, it doesn’t feel like crime is down,” Fuller told reporters. “I picked up these rounds from outside my car. Though it was dark, the police were doing their jobs. It’s just so overwhelming for us as a community, and I’m sure it is for the police department too.”
Penny thinks the city’s youth need more attention.
I engage in casual conversations with these young individuals. I employ individuals who exhibit similar behaviors. Some of them grow to be productive young men. Penny remarked, “We all need to pull together and collaborate to try to stop this thing and keep it down.” “We need to stop doing nothing because it’s everyone’s problem.”
Hunnicutt told 7News that she hopes the shootout leads to more police presence.
“I need to be more proactive. I can’t even walk my dog. I am afraid of going to my car at times.” I just hope there’s more security in the area,” Hunnicutt remarked. “We need some type of security in the area, such as police walking the beat or some other type of security, so that the bad guys will know somebody is watching them, so they won’t be watching us.”
