A five-hour barricade situation ended with a D.C. police officer shooting a man wielding a paintball gun Tuesday afternoon.
According to Executive Assistant Chief Ashan Benedict, police arrived at a house on McDonald Place in the Northeast neighborhood of Manor Park around noon after receiving reports of an attack with a black BB gun with an orange tip.
When officers arrived at the home, they found a man at the foot of the house holding a large machete and a “firearm that wasn’t consistent with what was described earlier,” Benedict said. As police confronted the suspect, he barricaded himself in the home. Officers determined that the situation escalated due to possible “mental health issues.”
As the city’s Emergency Response Team worked with the suspect, they saw materials used to start a fire, including “ignitable fluids” on the stairs. Benedict said the man had tried to burn the house down in the past.
However, police and D.C.’s Department of Behavioral Health members remained at the house and continued to speak with the suspect.
“We’re going to take as long as we needed to [in order] to bring the situation to safety,” Benedict said.
As negotiations continued, at around 5 p.m., officers saw smoke and fire coming from the home and decided to head to the basement. Police said in a news release that the man lit the fire on the basement steps.
As police entered, the man brandished what appeared to be a firearm and shot at the police, leaving holes on the wall near them.
A D.C. police officer engaged with the man and fired his gun at him before making the arrest. Police recovered the machete and several pellets but confirmed that the weapon used by the suspect was a paintball gun.
The man, identified as Jaron Wimbish, 25, was taken to the hospital for serious injuries, according to a news release. He has been arrested on charges of assault on a police officer while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon and arson.
Despite the shooting, Benedict said the members from the behavioral health department were helpful in de-escalating the situation.
“I can tell you that our negotiators and crisis intervention officers were front and center, working with us individually, trying to talk him down, trying to have him surrender, and not have that house burned or go up in flames,” Benedict said.
Below is a map of where the shooting took place.
WTOP’s Laura Spitalniak contributed to this report.
