A homicide suspect is dead after a shootout with D.C. police Thursday morning in Columbia Heights, according to the police department’s chief.
He was being sought for first-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old Maurisha Singletary of Northeast, who was found dead Sunday night inside a home on the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue NE, near Benning Road.
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said a joint task force involving D.C. police, U.S. Marshals and others had an arrest warrant for the suspect, who has not been publicly identified.
Member of the task force went to the suspect’s apartment in 1400 block of Girard Street Thursday morning.
“This morning, an exchange of gunfire occurred between the suspect and the members of the task force,” Smith said at a news conference. “The suspect was struck multiple times.”
He died at the scene, Smith said.
Smith said nobody on the task force side was hurt.
The suspect’s firearm was recovered inside the apartment, she said.
Michael Johnson, a resident of Columbia Heights and a community advocate, said the incident was shocking, and disrupted the morning for kids at a nearby school.
“We don’t want violence, we don’t any of that, we’re working too hard to bring the community together,” Johnson said, who added that the neighborhood is tight-knit.
Smith said the investigation was still preliminary.
“It’s still fluid right now,” Smith said.
The case remains under investigation.
Below is a map of where the shooting took place.
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WTOP’s Jeffery Leon contributed to this report.
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