A gunman opened fire on random victims from the top-floor window of an apartment building near an elite middle school in Washington, DC, on Friday, wounding four people, and then the attacker committed suicide after police stormed his residence.
Police said the suspect was Raymond Spencer, 23, of Fairfax, Virginia, who was initially identified from a video he posted on social media that appeared to show shots being fired from an upstairs window.
Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Conte said at a late-night news conference that the video “appears to be completely real”, but it has not yet been confirmed whether the footage was broadcast live or was released after it was filmed.
Police released a pamphlet containing photos of Spencer hours earlier, saying they were looking for him as a “person of interest” in their investigation.
The police chief said Spencer killed himself when police officers entered his residence, which he set up as a sniping post with a tripod-mounted weapon.
He added that the four victims were shot at random while “performing their work on the streets of the District of Columbia.”
Authorities said they did not yet know the motive behind the shooting, which took place along a busy street that is also home to several foreign embassies.
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