A person was shot Thursday night near the entrance of a Target in Northeast D.C.
Police said a shoplifting suspect was able to grab a security officer’s handgun during a struggle. He then fired a shot that injured an uninvolved bystander.
The suspect is accused of coming into the Target Store on New York Avenue NE in the Ivy City neighborhood Thursday evening and shoplifting thousands in merchandise. The haul included $1,500 worth of clothing, four iPad minis, two full-size iPads and headphones, according to the D.C. police incident report.
The report said when store employees, one of them an armed special police officer, attempted to take him into custody, the suspect pepper sprayed the officer and then grabbed his handgun. The suspect then fired a shot that struck and injured an uninvolved bystander before fleeing.
No information on the injured bystander’s condition has been made available.
People who frequent the Ivy City commercial area told News4 it has been feeling less safe to them in recent years.
“It’s horrible because this could be a nice area, and at one point that’s what they intended it to be, but you still just see a lot of homelessness, a lot of violence, and honestly I think the people of this city deserve better,” one person said.
Police said the suspect fled the scene on a scooter.
