Police: 5 are arrested after firing shots at DC police officers

WASHINGTON — Five people — including three women — have been arrested in D.C. after shots were fired at D.C. police around midnight.

Police had responded to the 3200 block of 6th Street near Alabama Avenue in Southeast after the District’s ShotSpotter detected that gunshots had been fired early Tuesday. Sensors around the city listen for the sounds of gunfire and alert police when it is heard.

When police got to the scene, police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck told WTOP, people inside an SUV started firing on the officers, and the officers returned fire.

No one was wounded.

The people in the vehicle barricaded themselves inside of it for about 30 minutes. Police negotiated with them and they surrendered.

Police are looking into whether a crime may have been committed just before the shots were fired. Sternbeck says that “We do not have information that this was a planned attack on police.”

WTOP’s Victoria Rossi and Nick Iannelli contributed to this report.

Colleen Kelleher

Colleen Kelleher is an award-winning journalist who has been with WTOP since 1996. Kelleher joined WTOP as the afternoon radio writer and night and weekend editor and made the move to WTOP.com in 2001. Now she works early mornings as the site's Senior Digital Editor.

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