First responders arrive at the scene of a shooting at the Decades nightclub in Washington, D.C., on Friday, April 26, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Five people, all adults, were shot and wounded late Friday night near a nightclub in the Dupont Circle area of Northwest Washington, the D.C. police said.
None of the wounds appeared to be life-threatening, and someone was taken into custody shortly after the gunfire broke out around 11:30 p.m., according to police. They said they recovered a gun.
An argument at the club in the 1200 block of Connecticut Avenue NW apparently touched off the shooting, according to police. The gunfire occurred “just outside” the club, said police spokesman Tom Lynch.
The site is about a block and a half southeast of Dupont Circle. A patron identified the club as Decades. He said it was busy at the time, with a line of people outside awaiting admission.
“This all started with a dispute that happened inside an establishment here,” said Assistant Police Chief Ramey Kyle at a news briefing early Saturday. The dispute “spilled out into the street,” he said.
A Washington Post photographer, Jabin Botsford, was inside Decades at the time and linked it to the gunfire.
He was on the second floor and heard shots, he said. A security guard told second-floor patrons that “somebody was shooting down there,” Botsford said.
About 75 people were in the second-floor section of the club at the time, Botsford said. About half left immediately via a fire escape at the rear of the club.
He said he later saw a woman being carried from the area of the club doorway on a stretcher. Her leg was bandaged but she seemed conscious, he said.
Connecticut Avenue, regarded as one of the city’s premier addresses, runs north and south for miles through one of the safer areas of the District. Shootings there are relatively rare.
Early Saturday, in a separate incident about two hours after the Connecticut Avenue gunfire, a man was found fatally shot about a mile away in another of the District’s busy dining and nightlife areas, according to Lynch, the police spokesman.
The victim was found inside an establishment in the 1300 block of U Street NW, Lynch said.
In a social media message, police said they were looking for two people in connection with the shooting.
The block where the Saturday morning shooting occurred is near the U Street and 14th Street corridors. It houses a variety of businesses in addition to restaurants and bars.
