Second Shooting Near Campus In Two Weeks Leaves Man Seriously Hurt

Image Courtesy of Patrick D. Lewis.

By Patrick D. Lewis

A shooting just blocks from Catholic University of America’s (CUA) campus left a man seriously wounded in the early hours of August 9. The shooting comes less than two weeks after a man was found dead just feet away from campus property after being shot.

The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the D.C. Fire and EMS Department responded to a call about a shooting around 12:37 a.m. in the 1200 block of Perry St., N.E., two blocks east of campus and a block south of the Turkey Thicket Recreation Center. Officers found an adult male unconscious but breathing, according to an MPD spokesperson. The victim was transported to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the lower body. 

A police spokesperson said in an email that there was no update on the man’s condition. The police report for the incident said the man was shot with a fully automatic pistol, a type of gun that is illegal nationwide.

There was no lookout or other suspect information available. No one has been arrested in the case as of August 10.

Furthermore, no alert or shelter-in-place order was issued by the CUA Department of Public Safety and Emergency Management regarding the shooting. MPD issued a text alert via AlertDC less than 20 minutes after the incident. 

Just 11 days before this shooting, a food delivery driver collapsed outside the entrance to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Michigan Ave.e after being shot at another location. There have been no updates on that case from the police, either.
Since July 1, Ward 5, the part of the city in which CUA is located, has seen at least 47 violent crimes and 447 property crimes, a total of 494 crimes, according to MPD data. That’s a marked increase from the same period last year, in which 765 total crimes were reported in Ward 5. However, D.C. community leaders and residents continue to worry about the crime rate in the nation’s capital, which remains higher than nearly every other major city in the country.