A federal agent shot at a car during a chase Thursday while working alongside D.C. police officers, police said. A D.C. police official said the person who fired a weapon is a Homeland Security Investigations agent. Another HSI agent patrolling alongside city police fired into a car during a traffic stop less than a month ago.
A federal agent shot at a car during a chase Thursday while working alongside D.C. police officers, police said. A D.C. police official said the person who fired a weapon is a Homeland Security Investigations agent. Another HSI agent patrolling alongside city police fired into a car during a traffic stop less than a month ago.
Both shootings occurred within blocks of each other on Benning Road in Southeast Washington.
D.C. police and federal officers were patrolling together Thursday as part of the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force” when they saw a car commit a traffic violation at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Minnesota Avenues SE at about 4:45 p.m., a D.C. police spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. They tried to initiate a traffic stop and the car fled, the spokesperson said. Members of the task force gave chase and a federal agent opened fire during the pursuit, police said. No one was injured.
No D.C. police officers were involved in the shooting, the spokesperson said. The statement from D.C. police directed further questions to Homeland Security Investigations. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
Police said they took a suspect into custody but did not identify the person or list any criminal charges Thursday night. The Washington Post requested the police report, but it was not immediately available.
City police have been patrolling in groups with federal officers as part of a law enforcement surge ordered in August by President Donald Trump and continued by a September order from D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser. Bowser has praised the partnership with Justice Department agencies such as the FBI, but — after videos showing D.C. police working alongside immigration authorities angered some residents — said she wants to remove the Homeland Security agencies from the patrols.
A spokesperson for Bowser referred a reporter to the statement from D.C. police.
Last month, D.C. police and officers from five federal agencies were patrolling together as part of the task force, according to court records, when they spotted a Dodge SUV with tinted windows and missing a front tag. The officers caught up to the Dodge and believed the driver was trying to flee, according to court records. A Homeland Security Investigations agent shot into the car at Phillip Brown, 33.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that the special agent fired at Brown “in fear for his life” after Brown drove at officers “in a deliberate attempt to run them down.” A D.C. police officer told a judge that none of the law enforcement officers were standing in front of Brown’s car. Brown bumped into a civilian vehicle stopped in front of him, and his criminal attorney, Quo Mieko Judkins, pointed out to the judge that the bullets entered the car from the side, not the front.
D.C. Superior Court records filed by a D.C. police officer do not mention the shooting, and a D.C. police report about the traffic stop indicates that no shots were fired. A transcript of the court proceedings shows a D.C. police officer told a judge he was instructed by his “team lead” not to document the shooting in a court record.
Attorneys for Brown accused the police department of trying to cover up the shooting, an allegation that D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith staunchly denied.
The D.C. police internal affairs bureau, which investigates all law enforcement-involved shooting in the District, is investigating both incidents.
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