On the afternoon of Friday, April 22, four people suffered gunshot wounds in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area after a shooter opened fire from his apartment window.
The suspect fired over 100 rounds from the AVA Van Ness apartment complex, according to authorities. Four individuals were injured: a 54-year-old retired police officer, one woman in her 30s and another in her 60s, and a 12-year-old girl.
The young girl was hit in the arm, and a bullet grazed the older woman; both were in stable condition. The two others were in critical condition but are expected to make a recovery.
Around 7:30 p.m., police identified Raymond Spencer, 23, of Fairfax, Virginia, as a “person of interest.”
Sometime later that evening, the body of a man deemed by police as the “primary suspect” was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a fifth-floor apartment. Inside the apartment, police had found six firearms, including rifles and handguns.
D.C Metro Police Chief Robert Contee stated, “This was very much a ‘sniper-type’ set-up with a tripod, and this person, obviously, his intent was to kill and hurt members of our community.”
Police did not specifically name Spencer as the deceased suspect, but they did say that they were no longer searching for the “person of interest.”
The shooting forced lockdowns of nearby campuses and public centers, such as the Edmund Burke School across the street. The University of the District of Columbia was also issued a shelter-in-place order.
Raymond Spencer was found to be active online during the shooting rampage, even going as far as updating the Edmund Burke School Wikipedia page.
“A gunman shot at the school on April 22, 2022. The suspect is still at large,” he wrote, according to The Washington Post.
Spencer also posted on the online forum page 4Chan, asking God to “forgive him” and giving updates in real-time on the shooting.
Chief Contee remarked that it appeared as though the shooter was picking out people “randomly.”
“It speaks to the depravity of some of the individuals we have to face in our community,” Contee told reporters. “There could’ve been more damage done, more lives lost.”