A 15-year-old boy is dead and three people wounded, including a D.C. police officer, after a shooting at an unpermitted Juneteenth event at 14th and U Streets in Northwest Sunday evening, police said.
Social media had promoted a free music event known as Moechella and several hundred people were gathering in the area around 6 p.m., Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said. The music event did not have a permit.
Police arrived to assist the crowd and people stayed mostly to the sidewalks as music played from a truck, he said.
Contee said that an “incident or fight” broke out around 6 p.m., causing people to scatter shortly before officers shut down the event. In the interim, he said, weapons were found in the unpermitted event area.
The shooting began as first responders were attempting to help attendees who were hurt while running from the event. He said the events occurred between 6 and 8:30 p.m.
A handgun was recovered from one of the victims but not the firearm believed to have caused the death and injuries, Contee said. No police fired their weapons and there was no exchange of gunfire, he said.
The police chief said officials would be speaking to event organizers and considering what legal action could be taken because the event lacked a permit.
“We will certainly want to make sure that people are held accountable when they hold unpermitted events in our city,” he said.
Mayor Muriel Bowser offered condolences to the family whose child died in the shooting and shared concerns over crowd control issues during unapproved events and the presence of guns in heavily populated, public areas.
“We need some accountability here,” Bowser told reporters.
The other two adults injured in the shooting have been hospitalized, and more firearms were discovered in the area. All, including the D.C. officer, were described as being in “stable condition.”
Police are currently seeking a suspect.
Contee told reporters that officers did not fire on the suspect during the shooting.
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