A 23-year-old man was killed in a wild gunbattle in Northeast Washington early Friday, the second person to die after a police-involved shooting in three days.
District of Columbia police said they were unsure if the bullet that killed Gregory Thomas Friday came from one of their officers or from another suspect.
An off-duty officer was driving in a marked cruiser shortly after midnight when he heard gunshots and saw a man with a handgun at the intersection of 17th Street and Benning Road NE.
The officer then heard gunshots coming from another direction, police said, indicating that the gunman may have been in the middle of a shootout.
The gunman turned and pointed his weapon twice at the officer who fired off several rounds before the suspect fled in a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice.
A D.C. officer on patrol arrived in time to fire several times at the Caprice.
Minutes later, Thomas was dumped at a fire station on 1342 Florida Ave. He was rushed to Howard University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. The getaway car was found abandoned in an alley behind the 1100 block of Morse Street NE.
The police officers, who were not identified, were placed on routine leave while police investigate.
The shooting death followed one Wednesday in which a 38-year-old Gregory Morris, of D.C., was killed after allegedly grabbing and firing an officer’s gun during a struggle that resulted from a routine traffic stop.
