A D.C. police officer shot at but did not strike a man early Saturday who authorities said was armed with a short-barrel rifle on a street in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington.
The man dropped the firearm and escaped in a vehicle, police said, and crashed several blocks away. Police said the man ran from the crash scene and was found several hours later at a residence, where he was arrested.
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A police spokesman said the man was not wounded. Police said they recovered two firearms: a rifle and a handgun.
Police identified the man Saturday as Donald Willis, Jr., 49, of Southeast. He has been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, and several other weapons and gun offenses, police said.
D.C. Police Executive Assistant Chief Ashan M. Benedict said officers went to the 2300 block of Chester Street SE about 1:30 a.m. in response to a report of an assault and shots fired on the block. Police said that before shots were fired, a person may have been thrown out of a party at a residence on that block.
Benedict said officers arrived and saw a man armed with the rifle. “After repeated commands, at least one officer discharged their weapon at this individual,” Benedict said in a video statement posted on the department’s Twitter page.
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Benedict said the man dropped the rifle and fled in a vehicle. After the crash, police said, the man ran away and officers found the second firearm and “additional items of evidence” that Benedict did not specify.
A police spokesman said officers found the man shortly before 6:30 a.m.
The Seventh District officer who fired a weapon has been placed on routine administrative leave during the investigation. Police said the officer’s body camera was activated. After serious use-of-force incidents, police have five business days to release body-camera video and to identify officers who fired.
Police spokeswoman Alaina Gertz confirmed that Willis was previously shot by a D.C. police officer in June 2019. Willis is still facing a gun charge connected to that incident and a D.C. Superior Court judge denied this month a motion he made seeking to have the case thrown out over the length of time it has taken to come to trial, according to court records.
The attorney representing him that case could not immediately be reached for comment Saturday.
Ian Duncan contributed to this report.