Washington, DC, police have named Raymond Spencer of Fairfax, Virginia, as a person of interest in a shooting that wounded four people, sending scores of officers into the Van Ness neighbourhood in response.
“We would like to speak to Mr Spencer, see if he has any role in this,” Washington assistant police chief Stuart Emerman said during a news conference on Friday. “And hopefully that will lead us to understand what happened here and why.”
Police released a set of photos of Mr Spencer, 23, on social media.
Earlier in the day, an account under the name Raymond Spencer posted a graphic video of the shooting on the message board website 4chan, and DC police say they named him a person of interested after “his name came up with social media things we’ve seen so far.”
All four victims of the shooting are in stable condition and expected to recover from their injuries, police said on Friday.
The wounded include a 54-year-old male, a mid-30s female, a 12-year-old girl, and a newly announced fourth victim, a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed in the upper back by a bullet.
Students at the nearby Edmund Burke School have been reuniting with their families, after sheltering in place for hours with police officers as the shooting investigation was ongoing.
Washington mayor Muriel Bowser praised the law enforcement response and condemned the epidemic of gun violence in the US.
“Unfortunately, I had to look into parents’ eyes that were terrified,” she said on Friday at the news conference. “They were terrified thinking of what could happen to their children. We have experienced this too much in our country, the epidemic of gun violence. The easy access to weapons has got to stop. People should not be scared taking their children to school.”
Police have not yet made any arrests, identified a motive for the shooting, or declared any suspects.
“We are still searching through buildings,” Mr Emerman added. “We are still doing some tactical searches.”
Investigators have still not determined where the shots came from.
The shooting occured around 3.20pm, sending the Burke School, as well as the campus of the nearby University of the District of Columbia into lockdown.
Numerous police officers, some in heavy body armour, arrived on the scene, and escorted panicked children and residents of local apartment buildings away from the epicenter.
One man, who lives in an apartment building near the shooting site, told WUSA he saw a woman running, yelling, “I’m shot! I’m shot!”
“After hearing the gunshots, I went to the back window, saw kids coming out of the school and frantically running to either side,” he said. “Then I went to the basement, saw people hiding under the car. More gunshots.”
Police are potentially going to offer a final update to the public about the investigation around 10pm EST this evening.
