Man suspected of shooting 4 in DC found dead inside his apartment, police still have no motive
By Bryan Ke
Raymond Spencer, the 23-year-old primary suspect of the Northwest D.C. shooting that left four people injured, was found dead inside his apartment.
The shooting took place near the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness Street NW close by the Edmund Burke School at 3:20 p.m. Friday. Among the people shot were a man believed to be in his 50s, a woman in her 30s, a 12-year-old girl and another woman who suffered a graze wound but chose not to go to the hospital. All four are expected to recover, according to Fox.
Authorities later found Spencer dead inside the bathroom of his apartment located on the 2900 block of Van Ness Street.
Investigators believe he died by suicide while officers entered his fifth-floor apartment that overlooked the outside area of the Edmund Burke School, where he fired the shots.
Police found a “sniper-type setup” with a tripod inside Spencer’s apartment and nine firearms, including several long guns and multiple rounds of ammunition. Speaking to WUSA9 on Monday, MPD Chief Robert Contee III said authorities also discovered some privately manufactured guns – also known as ghost guns – and automatic weapons.
As of Monday, Contee said police have yet to determine a motive behind the shooting. The MPD has, so far, found no connection between the reported shooter and the Edmund Burke School, Contee said, adding that the man has been estranged from his family “for some time.”
“No particular motive just yet. I think this is a classic case of a lone wolf sniper,” Contee said. “Hatred, pure evil, whatever reason … we are going through electronic devices, that sort of thing, to try to get to what the actual motive was.”
“It appears this person was shooting randomly at anyone who was out there,” Contee said, recalling the Beltway Sniper attacks in 2002 that killed 10 people. “There could have been a lot of damage done and lives lost.”
Graphic video of the shooting was also shared online and believed to have been recorded by the shooter during the event, which authorities have not yet confirmed. The MPD is also investigating several posts on 4chan posted by a user with the same name as the suspected shooter. “Dear God, please forgive me,” one post, uploaded at 3:24 p.m. on Friday, read.
The 4chan user then added another post at 3:30 p.m., saying, “They’re in the wrong part of the building right now searching XD.” Spencer posted his last message six minutes later: “Waiting for police to catch up with me.”
A person with the same name also revised the Edmund Burke School Wikipedia page at around 4 p.m. on Friday to read, “A basedman shot at the school on April 22, 2022. The suspect is still at large.” The same user then changed “basedman” to “gunman” shortly after and added “Hope they catch him soon!” next to the edit.
The About Me section of Raymond Spencer’s Wikipedia page, which was last edited at 3:58 p.m., indicated his age and that he was “an AR-15 aficionado.”
Feature Image via CBS Evening News
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