WASHINGTON — Gunshots were heard during a shootout in a Hill East neighborhood on Saturday afternoon, according to surveillance footage.
The gunshot took place close to Independence Avenue on 16th Street Southeast. According to D.C. police, nobody was hurt.
Doesn’t it sound like a combat zone? This resembles automatic gunfire going off at 2:00 PM on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, Adam Trister told WUSA9. The shooting exchange was caught on his surveillance footage.
A mother can be heard encouraging her daughter to enter the house in the video. According to Trister, a number of children were playing outdoors at the time of the incident. More gunfire was recorded by the same CCTV system exactly one week earlier.
“It feels that the police are in a situation where they are unable to do their jobs appropriately, and I don’t understand why, and it’s affecting the neighborhood,” Trister continued.
WUSA9 is informed by anonymous neighbors that they stay off 16th Street SE because they worry about getting caught in the crossfire.
Thirteen of Trister’s twenty years in the District have been spent in the Hill East area. However, in the last twenty months, Trister claims to have observed what he refers to as a “seismic shift.”
“To be quite honest, our city’s leadership’s inaction is forcing us from our house. It’s just a house, and my family’s safety is more essential than a house, even though I don’t want to leave.”
Some residents on East Hill claim that the violence in the neighborhood is driving them out of the District.
Others told WUSA9 that they are keeping a careful eye on how Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s crime bill is progressed by the DC Council, which has over 100 proposals.
Trister says he’s not sure if passing laws is the only way to address the issues his area is facing. “I believe that important measures must be taken, and the ones they are describing to me seem like baby steps. We’ve moved past that,” he declared.
Neighbors want a safety conference with police and Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray as a short-term remedy.
Also Read:
- Three individuals were arrested for drug trafficking in Bellerose Terrace by police
- Police claim woman pepper-sprayed two robbers in DC
- Metropolitan Police report: Maryland man fatally struck by pick-up truck in Southeast DC
