D.C. police cordoned off the 2600 block of Birney Place SE overnight into Monday after a shooting in Southeast Washington, the latest violent incident on a block with a long, grim history. Officers ran down the street as they worked to secure the scene, and as of Monday morning it remained unclear how many people were hurt or whether a suspect was in custody.
According to DC News Now, investigators were still working to determine what led up to the shooting. Local resident Larry Calhoun captured video of officers wrapping the block in crime scene tape, and the outlet reported that details remained limited as the investigation unfolded. DC News Now said it reached out to the Metropolitan Police Department for more information; the case remains a developing story.
A Block With a Troubled Recent History
The 2600 block of Birney Place SE sits in Ward 8 and falls under the patrol jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police Department's Seventh District, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. It is not the first time officers have responded to gunfire on this stretch of Southeast DC. Just months earlier, on April 12, the department says Seventh District officers responded to a non-fatal shooting on the same block that left an adult male hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Less than a year before that, on September 7, 2025, 20-year-old Najii Mercer of Oxon Hill, Maryland, was fatally shot near the same block in an afternoon attack that MPD investigated as a homicide, as reported by FOX 5 DC. Hoodline previously covered that case in its report titled seeking witnesses in that death.
Years of Repeated Gun Violence
The pattern stretches back further still. A 14-year-old boy was shot and killed on the block on October 29, 2022, one of at least nine juvenile gun violence fatalities recorded in D.C. that year, per WUSA9. Months prior, in July 2022, a woman was wounded in a barrage of gunfire in a parking lot near the block, an incident that drew a response from Seventh District police commanders, according to The Washington Post.
The block's history of multi-victim violence dates back even further. On May 28, 2019, 36-year-old William Boykin was killed and a second adult male was wounded in a double shooting there, MPD records show. And on September 17, 2016, a mass shooting on the same block killed two men, 31-year-old Scorpio-Rodney Alonzo Phillips and 18-year-old Zoruan Otto Harris, while wounding seven other people. The block was also the scene of a June 2 physical assault this year, in which a suspect struck a victim with an object; MPD announced an arrest in that case last month.
Citywide Trends Versus Local Reality
The recurring violence on Birney Place SE stands in contrast to broader citywide numbers. Official D.C. police data released early this year showed that violent crime, including homicides and robberies, decreased overall across the city in 2025 compared to 2024, even as localized violent incidents persisted in Ward 8 corridors. That contrast has played out elsewhere nearby in recent days: Hoodline reported a woman was hurt in a nearby Anacostia shooting, and just over a week ago, three men were shot in Congress Heights amid a reported 40 percent spike in D.C. assaults.
MPD offers standard rewards of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of homicide suspects and up to $10,000 for information regarding suspects in violent crimes citywide. As of Monday morning, no such reward had been specifically announced in connection with this latest shooting, and the number of people hurt in the overnight incident remained unclear. Hoodline will update this story as MPD and DC News Now release more information.
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