Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: A gunman shot three citizens, killing one during a random rampage in Washington, starting from a city bus and ending in the metro tunnel before passengers intervened and disarmed him.
According to the Associated Press, authorities were piecing together the vital evidence. Two citizens sustained gunshot injuries to the leg and a metro worker, identified as Robert Cunningham, was shot dead. Police took the attacker into custody, however, his identity was yet to be ascertained.
Ashan Benedict, Metropolitan Police Department Executive Assistant Chief, praised the “heroic actions of the people and the community, who disarmed the shooter.”
Benedict said that the violence began shortly after 9 am when a man began brandishing an arm and confronting passengers on the city bus in the southeast place of the city.
The man pursued one of the passengers off a bus and shot them in the leg.
Metro bus stop
The man then went down a lift of the nearby Potomac Avenue Metro stop, confronted pepole buying the metro pass, and shot two in the leg. Both victims were recovering in hospitals, the authorities said.
The armed man then went down to a train platform and began confronting a woman there. Ashan characterized his behavior as deeply erratic, saying, “He’s walking around brandishing the firearm and just randomly engaging citizens in confrontation. He’s agitated about something.”
Cunningham, a sixty-four-year-old mechanic in metro’s power department, tried to intervene but was killed by the gunshot.
Chair of the Metro board, Paul Smedberg, said that Cunningham “acted with bravery to help a customer the shooter was threatening.”
