One man was killed and three other people were wounded Tuesday afternoon in a shooting outside a Northeast Washington funeral home where mourners had just finished a service for a man who was shot last month, according to D.C. police.
D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said people were milling about after the service at Stewart Funeral Home on Benning Road NE, and it appeared a gunman or gunmen targeted one or more people on the sidewalk. But he said detectives were still not sure why, and police are trying to identify a suspect.
“It’s unfortunate that someone would be so brazen to do such an act, let alone at a funeral,” Contee told reporters at the scene. “How low can you be of a human being to target other people at a funeral?”
Police said they would increase patrols in the area to watch for possible retaliatory violence. Tuesday’s shooting worsens the District’s homicide count, which on Monday stood at 60, about 30 percent above this time last year. Police say violent crime in D.C. is up 3 percent so far this year.
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Police did not say whether any of the victims on Tuesday had attended the funeral for 24-year-old Stephon Carroll, who was shot March 24 on E Street in Southeast Washington, less than a mile from the funeral home. Authorities have yet to make an arrest in that case, and a possible motive has not been revealed.
Carroll’s funeral ended at noon; police said the gunfire outside the funeral home in the 4000 block of Benning Road NE began at 12:17 p.m.
Police identified the man killed Tuesday as 29-year-old Terrell Coghill of Northwest Washington. They said another man and two women who were shot suffered serious injuries, but those injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.
By 2:45 p.m., the streets around the funeral home were quiet, save for clusters of police behind caution tape. A black tent used by forensics detectives was erected outside the front door of the funeral home.
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Police said Tuesday evening that they were searching for a white Lexus IS 350, with possible damage to the bottom of the front passenger door, in connection with the shooting. Authorities said another shooting occurred about the same time a few blocks away; a man was grazed by a bullet, and police were trying to determine if the incident was related.
Efforts to reach Carroll’s relatives were unsuccessful. Carroll was to be buried at National Harmony Memorial Park in Hyattsville.
In a statement, a representative of the family-owned Stewart Funeral Home, which has been in the District for 123 years, said officials “extend our deepest condolences to the families who were targeted and impacted by today’s unimaginable tragedy following a sacred ritual.”
The statement described gun violence as a “national crisis” and urged leaders “to take meaningful action” to “make our communities safer.”
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Tyrell M. Holcomb, the chairman of the advisory neighborhood commission for the area that includes the funeral home, said community leaders and activists are working to tamp down anger involving crews that have had long-standing feuds in Ward 7. He said they are trying to prevent “further bloodshed.”
Holcomb, who also is a minister, said “we must recognize that we will perish as fools if we don’t find a way to live amongst each other.”
“We know that gun violence is preventable,” Holcomb said.
Jay Brown, an activist with the local organization Community Shoulders, said the deputy mayor of public safety and justice should have done more to anticipate possible violence around the funeral, given the man being buried had himself been slain.
“This was a high-profile funeral with a homicide victim, and the lack of security measures that were in place shows the disconnect between the deputy mayor of public safety, Lindsey Appiah, and the community,” Brown said, adding that Appiah should have talked to people who live in the area about how to handle security for the funeral.
Contee said Carroll’s family had asked for heightened police presence at the funeral — a common request when deaths are linked to violence. He said officers were nearby and rushed to the block when they heard gunfire.
A spokeswoman for Appiah declined to comment, referring to the chief’s remarks on police presence near the funeral.
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