Police early Thursday arrested a man suspected of shooting and wounding a D.C. Housing Authority police officer near the Navy Yard neighborhood in Southeast.
Chief Michael Reese, the head of the Housing Authority’s police unit, said the suspect was taken into custody at 9 a.m. after barricading himself inside a parking garage.
A woman who was with the male suspect also was taken into custody, police said.
Chief Reese said the wounded officer was shot in the chest and was in stable condition at a hospital.
Police said Housing Authority officers first responded to a senior living building at 410 M Street Southeast for a report of two “unwanted guests” at 5:45 a.m.
The man refused to leave and began struggling with a Housing Authority officer trying to arrest him, according to police.
The suspect then shot the officer, Chief Reese said.
Authorities said the shooting suspect opened fire on pursuing police officers in the building’s lobby and again outside the building as he fled the scene.
The man eventually holed up inside a parking garage attached to the Arris Apartments. He remained there for nearly three hours until he was taken into custody.
Chief Reese said Metropolitan Police led the barricade response that involved helicopter support and SWAT teams flooding the streets of the surrounding neighborhood.
The incident comes two weeks after the Valentine’s Day barricade situation in Southeast where a gunman shot three D.C. police officers trying to serve an animal cruelty arrest warrant.
“It’s very disturbing. The violence seems to be escalating,” Chief Reese said. “It’s just a challenging time right now for our law enforcement officers and the community at large.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the suspected shooter in the Feb. 14 barricade, Stephen Claude Rattigan, is in the country illegally from Jamaica. The agency said Mr. Rattigan was deported before but sneaked back into the U.S.
Police haven’t identified the shooter in Thursday’s barricade, nor have they recovered the firearm used to wound the officer.
Chief Reese said charges against the accused gunman haven’t been announced. The woman is facing charges of unlawful entry.
D.C. Councilmembers Kenyan McDuffie, at-large independent, and Trayon White, Ward 8 Democrat, were also at the scene to weigh in on another instance of violence against police officers.
“It is deeply disturbing that we find ourselves yet again at a scene with yellow tape with gunshot shells on the ground,” Mr. McDuffie said. “This is steps away from a school where parents and kids expect to be safe. And so I’m thankful for law enforcement … making an arrest. Now we need to bring those individuals to justice for what they’ve done.”
A resident who lives in the Arris Apartments said he was awoken by the sound of the helicopter overhead and SWAT team members shouting in the streets.
The resident, who asked not to be named, said the SWAT officers were ordering the building to be evacuated because of the barricade just steps away from the apartment complex’s entrance.
“[The officers] were yelling to people, saying, ‘You’re not safe’ and that they need to run away,” said the resident, who joined the rest of his neighbors in another building lobby near their home.