National Guard Member Shot While Breaking Up Fight on Capitol Hill; Suspect Wounded by Return Fire

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (TodayViralUSA) — A National Guard member was shot in the leg late Sunday after a group of troops stepped in to break up a street fight in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and the man accused of opening fire was wounded when Guard members shot back, police said.

Both were taken to hospitals with injuries that are not considered life-threatening, interim Metropolitan Police Department Chief Jeffery Carroll said at a news conference early Monday. The suspect was taken into custody. Police did not identify either person.

Troops left their van to intervene

The shooting happened at about 11:10 p.m. in the 400 block of 8th Street SE, on the Barracks Row corridor near the Eastern Market Metro station. Carroll said seven or eight Guard members were sitting in a van, monitoring a group of people on the sidewalk, when a fight broke out. The troops got out of the vehicle to intervene.

One of the people involved in the fight then produced a gun and began firing, according to police. Guard members ordered him to drop the weapon, Carroll said.

“The National Guard members told the individual to drop the firearm. He discharged a round at the National Guard members who returned fire at that suspect,” Carroll told reporters.

The confrontation began near the entrance to an alley and continued into the alley itself, where the suspect fired again, the chief said. Three Guard members fired their weapons. The suspect was struck in the abdomen, and investigators have not yet determined which Guard member’s shot hit him.

Quick medical response

Guard members began giving first aid immediately after the gunfire, and personnel from a D.C. Fire and EMS station on the same block arrived quickly to assist, police said.

Preliminary information indicates the fight involved people who had been inside a nearby establishment earlier in the evening, Carroll said. What set off the altercation remains under investigation. No charges had been announced as of Monday morning.

Investigation and appeal for witnesses

The department’s Internal Affairs Division and Criminal Investigations Division are handling the case. Carroll said police were not looking for any other shooter and that there was no continuing threat to the public, but investigators want to speak with people who took part in the fight or witnessed it and left after shots were fired. Police asked anyone with information to call 202-727-9099 or text 50411.

The shooting came nearly 11 months after two National Guard members were shot while on patrol outside the Farragut West Metro station on Nov. 26, 2025. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died the next day, on Thanksgiving, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe survived and has been recovering, The Washington Post reported. Rahmanullah Lakanwal has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in a 17-count indictment in that case.