By Canadian Press

Passengers disarm gunman who killed DC employee, shot others

Feb 1, 2023 | 12:07 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — An armed man shot three people, killing one, in a Wednesday morning rampage in the nation’s capital that started on a city bus and ended in a Metro tunnel after passengers attacked and disarmed him.

Authorities were still piecing together the chaotic series of events that left two people with gunshot wounds to the leg and a Metro employee shot dead. The shooter is in police custody and has not been publicly identified.

Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Ashan Benedict praised the “heroic actions of our citizens, our community, to disarm this shooter.”

But he added, “The fact that our citizens had to intervene with armed gunmen is disturbing to me.”

The violence began shortly after 9 a.m. when the man began brandishing a weapon and confronting passengers on a city bus in the southeast area of the city. The man pursued one of the passengers off the bus and shot them in the leg, Benedict said.

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The man then went down the escalator of the nearby Potomac Avenue Metro stop, confronted someone who was buying a Metro pass and shot that person in the leg as well. Both victims were recovering in local hospitals.

The armed man then went down to the train platform and began confronting a woman there. A Metro employee tried to intervene and was killed by a gunshot. The identity of the slain transit worker has not been released, but Benedict said their “heroism had to be recognized.”

The man then attempted to board a Metro train and was apparently confronted and disarmed by the passengers. He exited the train car and was taken into custody by police officers, who recovered his weapon on the train tracks, Benedict said.

Ashraf Khalil, The Associated Press