Loose gun misfires, hits D.C. police officer during retrieval on Northeast highway

D.C. police said an officer was wounded Wednesday evening after a loose gun discharged while the cop tried to fish it out of a highway storm drain in Northeast.

Metropolitan Police Executive Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll said the officer suffered a gunshot wound to the upper body shortly after 5:40 p.m. Wednesday on the southbound side of Interstate 295.

Assistant Chief Carroll said the officer is alive, but didn’t say how severe the officer’s injuries were, where the officer was hit in his upper body, or how many times the gun went off.

“The officer was transported by helicopter from the scene here to a local hospital where he’s currently receiving treatment at this time,” the assistant chief said. “As I said, this is a very tragic circumstance.”

He added that the cop is a 25-year veteran who has worked on MPD’s Violent Crime Suppression team for the past 15 years.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said that even though it was technically an accident, it was still "tragic."

"While preliminary information indicates that the gunshot was the result of a tragic accident, this is a horrible reminder of the dangers our officers face every day. We are grateful for their service," she posted on X.

The wounded officer was working with that special unit when they pulled over a suspicious vehicle in an alley near the 4500 block of Quarles Street Northeast.

Assistant Chief Carroll said a “suspicious man” got out of the car and jumped down onto the highway below, where he threw the gun in the drain.

Officers tried to catch up with the suspect, but police said he dashed across traffic to the northbound side of I-295 and then hopped on the back of a motorcycle.

The biker sped off moments later.

“We have no indication that he knew the person that the motorcycle he got on the back of,” Assistant Chief Carroll said. “We do know that he ran in the roadway, in the southbound lanes and actually climbed kind of - there’s a gap in the fence between the southbound lanes - and got on the northbound side and jumped on the back of motorcycle.”

Authorities said the suspect is a Black man with long dreadlocks who was last seen wearing a white shirt and light blue shorts.

The chief didn’t elaborate on what about the vehicle was sufficiently suspicious to justify the initial stop.