DC special police officer shoots armed man involved in shooting at metro transit station
Washington DC July 22, 2023
A special police officer providing extra security to help abate crime in the region’s transit system shot and critically injured a teenager who had himself shot a man, then exchanged gunfire with the officer Thursday night at the Fort Totten Metro station in Northeast Washington, according to a spokeswoman for the agency.
Authorities said the officer, called a special police officer, confronted a group of people fighting on a train platform shortly before 11 p.m.
Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said that one person pulled out a gun during the fracas and that two people in the group struggled for control of the firearm, which fell to the ground. She said the teenager picked up the gun and shot a man.
Ly said that’s when the special police officer confronted the armed teenager, and “they exchanged shots.” Ly said the wounded teenager ran out of the station and was caught by the officer, who was not injured in the shootout. She said a firearm was found near a set of the Metro station’s fare gates.
Ly declined to provide the age of the teenager.
Police said the teen and the man who was shot were taken to a hospital with critical injuries, but Ly said they were expected to survive.
There was no immediate information on criminal charges being filed.
The Metro Transit Police agency is investigating the shooting that occurred during the fight; D.C. police are investigating the shooting of the teen by the officer. Special police officers are licensed by the District.
Ly said police do not know why the group was fighting. An initial account provided by Metro Transit Police on Twitter said the special police officer fired a gun but omitted that a round had struck someone. The station on Galloway Street NE, near the Michigan Park neighborhood, serves the Red and Green lines. It was closed until about 7 a.m. Friday.
Violence at Metro stations and aboard trains has been an increasing concern for months, and several people have been killed in the Metro system this year.
In May, 17-year-old Brendan Ofori was killed by a man trying to rob him aboard a train as it pulled into the Waterfront station, police said. That same month, 18-year-old Tenneson Vaughn Leslie Jr. was fatally shot in the head as he ran from two assailants on a Metro platform in Wheaton.
In February, a Metro employee was fatally shot after he tried to stop a gunman targeting commuters inside the Potomac Avenue Metro station.
In February, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) announced plans to deploy D.C. police to accompany transit officers at Metro stations across the District. Metro has said it also assigned private police who have arrest powers to patrol up 20 percent of its 97 stations, including the Fort Totten station.
On Tuesday, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke tweeted that Metro’s ambassador program, along with other security initiatives including new mental-health-crisis-intervention specialists, has corresponded with a 27 percent drop in serious crimes in the Metro system from last quarter, which ended June 30.
