One man is dead and another is recovering after a shooting late Tuesday night in Northwest D.C.'s Shaw neighborhood, and police still have not released a suspect description. Officers found two men with gunshot wounds in the 1700 block of 9th Street NW, and the man who died was pronounced dead at the scene while the second man was taken to a hospital.
Officers Rushed To 9th Street NW
According to WJLA, Metropolitan Police officers responded to the 1700 block of 9th Street NW around 10:48 p.m. Tuesday and found the two men down with gunshot wounds. The man who died succumbed to his injuries at the scene, police told the outlet, while the second man was transported to a hospital and is expected to be ok.
An emergency alert logged by District officials tells a slightly different story about timing. It recorded Third District officers responding under AlertDC's CAD Event #I20260359083 to a shooting on the same block at 11:16 p.m. Tuesday, roughly a half hour after the time cited to WJLA, and that alert also did not include a suspect description. The block sits in D.C.'s historic Shaw neighborhood in the Third Police District, near the Shaw-Howard University Metro station between Rhode Island Avenue NW and Florida Avenue NW.
Tip Lines Open As Investigation Continues
Police are asking anyone with information to text 50411 or call 202-727-9099, per the outlet's report. Tipsters could be eligible for a reward: the Metropolitan Police Department offers up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in a homicide, and up to $10,000 for tips solving a non-fatal shooting. MPD has not identified either man publicly, and detectives have not said whether they recovered shell casings, pulled surveillance footage, or believe the shooting was targeted, leaving the motive unresolved for now.
A Block With A Violent Past
The 1700 block of 9th Street NW has seen gun violence before. D.C. Superior Court records show it was the site of a February 2020 shooting tied to a gang rivalry that injured three people, according to DC Witness, which reported that defendant Reginald Steele was convicted in that case in November 2025. MPD has not said whether Tuesday's shooting has any connection to that earlier incident.
Homicides Down Citywide, But Gun Assaults Are Climbing
This shooting lands amid a mixed public safety picture in the District. Homicides are down 35% year-to-date, falling to 63 through August 4, 2026, compared to 97 over the same stretch last year, per Metropolitan Police Department data, while the department's homicide clearance rate has slipped to 74% through the first two quarters of 2026 from 85% in 2025. At the same time, reported assaults with a dangerous weapon have jumped 42%, from 530 to 752 over the same period, a trend that also surfaced in Hoodline's coverage of another recent NW homicide this week.
The citywide homicide decline has drawn national attention, with the Council on Criminal Justice ranking Washington, D.C., among the top U.S. cities for homicide reduction between 2024 and 2025, citing a 40% year-over-year drop. But the numbers themselves have faced scrutiny; a District Inspector General report released in July outlined persistent deficiencies in how MPD verifies its crime statistics, according to the Washington Post, fueling local debate over how reliable the department's figures really are.
