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Gunshots erupted Thursday in a Washington, DC neighborhood known for its restaurants, injuring two men, one of whom may have been a passerby, police said.
The shooting around 8:20 p.m. at 14th Street NW and Riggs Street NW scared the diners away.
Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee called the violence “unacceptable” and said the shooting took place in a busy area.
“I think this is really a testament to the cheekiness of some of the criminals we see in our community,” Contee told reporters at the scene.
The gunfire erupted the same day the Justice Department announced it was launching “strike forces” to smuggle guns into five cities and regions, including Washington, DC.
The two people shot dead on Thursday sustained non-life threatening injuries and were recovering in hospitals, police said.
One person was seen as the target and the other was possibly an uninvolved bystander, Contee said. Police released video showing two people wearing hooded sweatshirts running towards a parked black sedan. Authorities described them as suspects.
The area where the shooting took place is popular for its restaurants and was teeming with customers, NBC Washington reported.
A woman at a nearby restaurant told the station she heard between 10 and 15 gunshots, and everyone on the patio ran inside. “I just got down to the ground,” she said.
On Friday night, a 6-year-old girl was killed when six people were shot, and the following night fans at a Nationals baseball game panicked after three people were shot outside of the stadium.
“I am outraged, the chief is outraged and the community should be outraged,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser.
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