Members of the D.C. area’s fugitive task force shot and killed a murder suspect Thursday after the armed man opened fire on authorities in a Columbia Heights apartment complex, D.C. police said.
Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the gunman, whose identity wasn’t shared, shot at members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force when it served an arrest warrant around 7 a.m. at his unit in the 1400 block of Girard Street Northwest.
Chief Smith said authorities entered the apartment and told the suspect to come out. Instead, the suspect took aim at law enforcement inside the apartment.
“This morning, an exchange of gunfire occurred between the suspect and the members of the task force,” the chief said at a press conference. “The suspect was struck multiple times.”
No one on the task force was injured, and authorities recovered the man’s weapon inside the dwelling.
Chief Smith didn’t say which agencies were involved in serving the warrant, but added that no Metropolitan Police officers fired their weapons during the exchange. The task force partners with more than 100 agencies at the state, local and federal levels.
Police said the suspect was behind the killing of 33-year-old Maurisha Singletary. The victim was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound Sunday in an apartment on the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue Northeast.
Ms. Singletary was the third person killed during a bloody weekend across the District.
MPD said it’s still looking for a second suspect after arresting one man in connection to Saturday’s fatal shooting in Northwest.
Shots rang out just after 12:30 a.m. Saturday, and officers soon found Jerome Myles, 26, dead in the 1400 block of Clifton Street Northwest.
Police said responding officers spotted two suspects running into a nearby apartment building shortly after the shooting.
Detectives were able to arrest and charge 35-year-old Antoine Walker with murder during their sweep of the complex, but the second suspect remains on the loose.
On Friday evening, authorities said they were called to the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue Northeast for a reported shooting.
Officers found Jermaine Durbin, the 17-year-old victim, dead from a single bullet wound at the scene.
Police have not identified any suspects in the killing.
The killings come as President Trump, who federalized the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed the National Guard to the District over a crime emergency, claimed there was “no crime” in the city last weekend.
Violent crime, especially homicides, robberies and carjackings, dropped sharply during Mr. Trump’s federal surge, but those declines have plateaued as the president directs his crime crackdown to other major cities such as Chicago and Portland, Oregon.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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