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Three men who were among five people shot inside an apartment in Southwest Washington’s Waterfront area Tuesday afternoon, one of them fatally, have been charged with murder, according to D.C. police.
Authorities did not say whether the three suspects were wounded in an exchange of gunfire or accidentally shot themselves. All three went to hospitals on their own, police said. Their injuries were described as non-life-threatening.
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The shooting occurred about 4:20 p.m. inside a fifth-floor unit of Valo Apartments, a luxury residential building with a rooftop pool in a rapidly gentrifying area on M Street SW, near the Wharf and Nationals Park.
Police said the five people involved in the shooting knew each other. A police report made public Wednesday lists “drug dealing” as a suspected motive.
Authorities identified the men charged with first-degree murder while armed as Southeast D.C. residents Keshawn Lavender, 22; Deandre Sams, 27; and Raymond Mathis, 36. Police said they remained hospitalized Wednesday and have not made initial court appearances. It could not be determined if they have attorneys.
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The victim who died was identified as Matthew Anthony Miller, 32, who police said lived in the apartment where the shooting occurred, according to a police report.
Miller’s mother, Sandra L. Miller, who lives in Temple Hills, Md., said authorities have not provided her with any information about their investigation. In a brief interview, Miller said her son lived “partly” at the M Street apartment.
“He always had a job,” Miller said “He was just a good son.”
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Police said a fifth man wounded by gunfire, found in the building’s lobby, is expected to survive. The police report says a sixth person was injured when he fell off a fifth-floor ledge.
A resident said she heard two rounds of muffled gunshots as she and her roommate entered their fifth-floor apartment after walking their dog. They quickly locked the door behind them. She said they didn’t know if there was an active threat or even if the shooting had happened on her floor.
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The resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear over her safety, said she moved into the building two years ago and just re-signed another lease.
Emily Mooney, director of marketing and communications for Bernstein Management Corporation, which manages the building, described the shooting in a statement as “incredibly unsettling and unfortunate” and noted it was “an isolated and targeted incident.”
“We are pained by this horrific incident and understand the unease our residents are experiencing,” the statement says, adding the complex has increased security and that managers are making information and surveillance camera footage available to D.C. police.
D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), whose district includes the shooting site, said the city must take on gun violence “with greater urgency” at all levels of government. “It’s tragic, it’s alarming,” Allen said. “Gun violence creates the loss of a sense of safety, brings on trauma for an entire community, and the loss of life for the victim.”
Homicides in D.C. are up 30 percent over this time last year, according to police statistics. Eight people have been killed in first five days of September, including a 15-year-old boy shot in Southeast Washington and young women ages 18 and 19 who were among three people shot in Shaw in Northwest.
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