DC shooting in Logan Circle leaves 4 injured as police respond to active shooter

Police confirming that three people have been shot near 15th and P Streets Northwest. That is in the Logan Circle neighborhood. We do not know the conditions of the victims or what led up to that shooting. We do know what happened within the hour. So around 8 o'clock this morning, our newsroom got an email that this happened in the past 15 minutes. So our Melanie Ulrich, she is headed to the scene. She's going to have a live report for us here. She's joining us now with the latest details, what we know at this hour. I know you're on your way there, so you're still gathering a lot of this information, but what can you tell us? Yeah, we just don't really know a lot at this point, but I can tell you that the first dispatch came out right about 8 a.m. and then it was clarified with the address saying that the shooting happened inside of Vita Fitness in Logan Circle. And yes, I also confirmed with some of my sources that at least four people have been shot. And again, we don't know confirmation of their conditions, but my understanding is that some of these are possibly life-threatening shootings. We also know that there was a dispatch as well for a commercial fire alarm right next to that address. We don't know if that was someone who was trying to alert police or what exactly is going on there. We know Falcon 1, the helicopter has been called out. This is still considered to be an active shooter situation. People that live in the neighborhood have told me that they don't know if they're being told to shelter in place, We are doing, or whether they are in their homes or whether they're at any businesses, people are staying inside until they get the all clear from D.C. police. And even as we've been in here on 395 trying to make our way into the city, we have seen a number of emergency response vehicles trying to make their way through the traffic. You might be able to see one just up there ahead. That's at least the second or third emergency vehicle that we've seen trying to get into the city. We were over in Alexandria earlier, so certainly a massive response. situation going on as everyone is trying to make their way. We're trying to make our way in there as well. To understand from DC police what the situation is currently, we do not have a lookout at this point for any suspect. We also don't have any real details in terms of what were the events that led up to this shooting. But all of that obviously still unfolding at this hour. And many of those are things to deal with later. The immediate situation right now is whether there was still an active shooter on scene and what DC police are doing to find that person and to keep the the rest of the community safe. That's the latest from here, guys. We'll let you know when we get there and we have something else to add. Mel, we're going to stay on this. We're going to let you go ahead and see if you can work any more sources, get any more information in the next couple of minutes. Jacqueline and I have been just trying to scour online to see what other folks are saying about this and what we can find out. And we'll try to throw up a map in the meantime so you can see exactly where this is happening. If you're not familiar with that particular neighborhood, just a couple of blocks. Outside of Logan Circle, that's Logan Circle to the right there, where right under the O-N in investigation would be Logan Circle proper, and then the shooting investigation would be just to the west of that, about a block and a half. But various accounts coming in online, we're not going to put anything out there officially until we can get it. confirmed by police but there are a number of people who are talking about where specifically this may have happened. Everything does seem to circulate as Mel said either in or around that fitness center which is right there in the area of 15th and P and as she mentioned Jacqueline it appears four people shot one with life-threatening injuries is what we're being told at this point. It initially came in we thought three people shot then they added that extended it to be four people shot again, this happening just about eight o'clock. So it happened about 40 minutes ago. But as Mel was saying, Jacqueline, you know, she's still seeing police response headed to that scene, even though it's been some time since it was first reported. Yeah, still unknown where that suspect or suspects may be. Police heavily. We're going to have to wait and see. Heading to that area, heavy police presence in that area. Like you said, we thought originally three people had been shot, but that has now been upgraded to four people that have been shot, one of them life-threatening. Again, all of this in the Logan Circle area, like you mentioned, 15th and P Streets in northwest D.C. But again, a lot of this unconfirmed information, what we're sharing with you is in fact confirmed, but there's a lot of speculation on social media, so of course we don't want to share that information until we have confirmed details from police We have our reporter there on the scene. So like you heard from Melanie, she is on her way there. But it is morning rush hour. So not only for our reporter, but also for police trying to get through that area. You can imagine the constraints that they may be dealing with at this hour. Yeah, it's a busy area no matter what time of day it is, right? I mean, it's obviously it's a... It's an entertainment district. It's a very busy place in the evening hours and it's obviously a very heavy residential area as well. As a matter of fact, we have some colleagues that live right in that area. So it is definitely a busy, busy place no matter what hour of the day it is. But you're right now right in the heart of the morning rush hour in an area that's already congested. You can imagine with the emergency response that's in the Logan Circle area now just how much more difficult it is to get around. To Jacqueline's point, that is for the emergency vehicles as well. So we don't know as more and more emergency crews and police respondents are headed to the scene. You know, there's a lot of questions about if that is for. Victim aid, you would think, and we have heard, a lot of the victims, obviously the initial victims, you want to treat them immediately, right? So that would have happened some time ago, which lends you to think that if that many units are still responded, that would be more of a search suspect type situation. Right, exactly. And yeah, the D.C. police posting on social media, they're asking people to avoid the area. They say the situation is still fluid and that there is an active shooting situation there. So they are working to have people avoid that area and move out of the way. We're also working to speak with a witness on the phone, I do believe, who is near the scene to give us a better insight into what is happening there as we wait for Melanie to get there and give us a better understanding as well. So there you go. If police are saying avoid the area, there's your headline for this hour. It's just to stay away from the Logan Circle area. And I know a lot of people are always curious about what's happening and why the police response is so big. But if you're listening right now and You have somebody in that area, just tell them just be patient and stay away because if it is indeed the active shooter situation that police seem to be leading to that situation at this point, you do not want to be in that area. And police certainly don't want you there so they can get their work done and mitigate the situation and make it safe for everybody. Yeah. Again, this is this active shooter situation in Northwest DC near the 15th Street area in In Northwest, I do believe there's a Vita Fitness gym in that area. We are still working to confirm if that was potentially the location of this shooting. But we do know, as you mentioned, the Logan Circle area is where this is happening, where D.C. police are asking you to avoid that area at all costs right now as they work to investigate, as they work to respond to these victims and continue to try to find this suspect as well. All right. And we're continuing to work behind the scenes to try to get as much information as we can. We're just letting you know what we find out essentially in real time as the investigation continues. But see if we can get back to Mel. Mel is just trying to work her way through traffic and still. Several blocks away from pretty much the closest access point that we can get, but that doesn't mean that we can't make communication with some of the folks who are involved in the investigation right now to try to learn more. And again, trying to reach out to some folks who we know are in that area and close to that area. If you're one of them, let us know if you're down there and you did hear something or see something as we're trying to. Put the pieces together as to where specifically this may have happened as various reports came in and this may have happened in the fitness center, near the fitness center, other reports adjacent to the fitness center. Mel, have you heard anything else at this point? No, we haven't heard anything else. We're just, like I said, trying to make our way here. It seems like there's blocking off even more streets. I think I just saw Pennsylvania Avenue, a number of police in front of the Wilson building. They've got that blocked off. We've been seeing a number of police vehicles just trying, again, trying to make their way through traffic, trying to get to that scene. A lot of mutual aid, it appears. I haven't really We haven't really had much of a chance to try to listen and see what the current situation is. It's really everything's just very fluid right now. But as you said, a number of people being warned just to stay out of the area. Now people are kind of sheltering in place. We're seeing if you're looking at my front facing camera, you're seeing an ambulance coming toward us. I don't know whether that has anything to do with it, but just a lot of emergency activity around the city right now. As again, we're we're still a good. At least 10 minutes or so away from the scene and traffic continues to back up as people are making their way for emergency vehicles. So, again, guys, we're just sketchy on details right now and we don't want to put things out there that are not confirmed. So we're just going to leave it at that for now. Looking on social media, I just saw the official social media Twitter account of or ex-account of ATF Washington. They said that they are on the scene there assisting during this active shooting investigation, as well as we haven't seen any details in regards to a suspect. So there has not been any description in regards to that, something that surely police are hopefully going to share with folks. Due time, as they do ask people to avoid that area, as well as try to search for that suspect because they say that they are unaware of where that person may be. This originally came in as three people that were shot, but that has now been confirmed that four people have been shot, one of them life-threatening from what we are told. But still, a lot of unconfirmed information this morning, so we are trying to be careful with what we share because we don't want to share any information that is just hearsay. But all of this happening. near 15th and P streets in northwest D.C. in that Logan Circle area, a very popular area, very dense population of people for the morning commute at this hour.