Passengers disarm attacker who killed DC officer, shot others – KGET 17

from: ASHRAF KHALIL, Associated Press

Published: February 1, 2023 / 10:27 AM PST

Updated: February 1, 2023 / 10:27 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) – A gunman shot three people, killing one, in a rampage Wednesday morning in the nation’s capital that began on a city bus and ended in a subway tunnel after passengers attacked and disarmed him.

Authorities were still piecing together the chaotic series of events that left two people with gunshot wounds to the leg and a Metro employee shot to death. The killer is in police custody and has not been publicly identified.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Chief Constable Ashan Benedict praised the “heroic actions of our citizens, our community, to disarm this shooter.”

However, he added: “The fact that our citizens had to intervene with armed gunmen disturbs me.”

The violence began shortly after 9 a.m. when a man started brandishing a weapon and clashing with passengers on a city bus in the southeastern part of the city. The man chased one of the passengers off the bus and shot them in the leg, Benedikt said.

The man then went down an escalator at a nearby Potomac Avenue subway station, confronted someone buying a subway pass, and shot that person in the leg as well. Both victims were recovering at local hospitals.

The armed man then descended onto the platform and began to confront the woman there. A Metro employee tried to intervene and was shot dead. The identity of the slain transit worker has not been released, but Benedict said their “heroism must be recognized.”

The man then tried to board the subway train, and the passengers apparently confronted and disarmed him. He got out of the train and was arrested by the police, who found his weapon on the tracks, Benedikt said.