National Guard member shot in DC after trying to break up fight

A member of the National Guard was shot in the leg late Sunday while attempting to break up a fight in Southeast Washington, police said Monday.

The injured guard member and the suspected shooter were hospitalized, and their injuries were not deemed life-threatening.

The shooting occurred around 11:10 p.m. EDT in the 400 block of 8th Street SE, according to interim Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Jeffery Carroll. Seven or eight National Guard members were “monitoring” a group of people gathered on a sidewalk.

A fight broke out and troops exited their vehicles to try to intervene, when they “heard gunshots” as they approached the group, Carroll noted during an early morning news conference.

One of the suspects involved in the altercation had opened fire, prompting guard members to order the person to drop their weapon, according to police.

“That individual then pointed the weapon toward National Guard members, who returned fire,” the police chief said.

Three guard members fired their weapons, shooting the suspected gunman in the abdomen. One guard member was also shot in the leg during the confrontation.

Carroll said it was not immediately clear which member fired the shot that struck the suspected gunman, whose identity has not been released.

MPD’s Internal Affairs Division and Criminal Investigation Division are investigating the shooting. Carroll said there were “no further threats to the community.”

The shooting comes nearly a year after two National Guard members were shot and injured blocks away from the White House, leaving one dead and another critically wounded.

The soldiers were first deployed to the nation’s capital to help tackle crime last year. Their stay was extended earlier this year through the 2029 presidential inauguration.