Raymond Spencer: Person of interest identified in Washington DC shooting takes his own life, police say

Raymond Spencer of Fairfax, Virginia, identified as the person of interest in the shooting

A portrait of Raymond Spencer, a person of interest in a Friday, 22 April, 2022, shooting in Washington, DC, that wounded four (Washington DC Metropolitan Police)

Raymond Spencer of Fairfax, Virginia, the person of interest identified in a shooting that wounded four people and sent scores of officers into the Van Ness neighbourhood in response, took his own life, police said.

Spencer was initially identified from a video he posted on social media appearing to show gunshots fired from the vantage point of an upper-floor window.

The post that misspelled “Shool shooting,” appeared “authentic”, said Washington metropolitan police chief Robert Contee, adding they were uncertain if the footage was streamed live or was posted after the incident.

The police had issued a bulletin with photographs of Spencer hours earlier, seeking him as the “person of interest” in the probe.

The schools and properties in the neighborhood of Edmund Burke school were placed under security lockdown, as the shooting and manhunt near the private college preparatory academy left students frightened, sending anxious texts to parents.

The police was able to triangulate the location of the suspect to the fifth floor of a “particular apartment building” with the help from eyewitnesses.

They ultimately “breached the location where the suspect took his own life,” said Mr Contee, adding that the authorities seized more than half a dozen firearms, including several rifles and ammunition from the apartment.

“His intent was to kill and hurt members of our community”, but investigators had yet to determine a motive, said the chief, adding that the suspect had arranged a “sniper-type setup” with a tripod weapons mount and was acting alone.

All four victims of the shooting, were shot at random and are in stable condition, the police said. They are expected to recover from the injuries.

The wounded include a 54-year-old male, a mid-30s female, a 12-year-old girl, and a woman in her mid-60s who was grazed in the upper back by a bullet.

Deaven Rector, 22, a law student, told Reuters he heard three shots of gunfire that appeared to have come from the AVA Van Ness apartment building where he lives. “Right now, the police have secured the area, and it’s safe, but the fact that this type of chaos can be caused by a maniac on a regular Friday... The kids were about to get out of school,” he said.

Washington mayor Muriel Bowser praised the law enforcement response and condemned the epidemic of gun violence in the US.

“Unfortunately, I had to look into parents’ eyes that were terrified,” she said on Friday at the news conference.

“They were terrified thinking of what could happen to their children. We have experienced this too much in our country, the epidemic of gun violence. The easy access to weapons has got to stop. People should not be scared taking their children to school.”