WASHINGTON — Just one D.C. police officer fired during a fatal struggle with an armed man in the city’s Trinidad neighborhood that was captured on the body cameras of two officers on Thursday night.
Police recovered a gun at the corner of Morse and Holbrook streets NE that they say Timothy L. Williams, 47, had been carrying, D.C. acting Police Chief Peter Newsham said.
Williams was shot during the struggle and later pronounced dead at the hospital. Both officers involved in the struggle were also shot and injured.
One was released from the hospital and the other remained hospitalized on Friday. Newsham called their prognosis “excellent.”
Investigators are still trying to determine whether Williams fired at the officers or whether one or both officers was hit by friendly fire, Newsham said.
“There is an indication that the weapon that we recovered that we believe to be the suspect’s was fired,” he said.
Both officers’ body cameras were rolling during the incident and a decision whether to release the video to the public was under review by Mayor Muriel Bowser and the U.S. attorney’s office, he said.
A witness also captured video of a portion of the incident and posted it on social media. Newsham said that video would join other evidence that is part of the investigation.
The two officers were working as part of a crime suppression unit that aims to remove illegal guns from D.C. streets and responded to the neighborhood because there were reports of shots fired there earlier in the evening.
Newsham said the pair tried to stop Williams who was on foot. He ran from the officers who soon stopped him, who ran leading the officers on a foot chase before he was stopped and the struggle began. It was unclear what drew the officers’ attention to Williams or why they tried to stop him.
Williams did not have a known address.
The officers have each worked for the Metropolitan Police Department for more than three years. And both officers have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure when officers are involved in a shooting. Their names have not been released.
WTOP’s Megan Cloherty contributed to this report.
