WASHINGTON (WUSA9) -- Firefighters and police responding to an accident were shot at Saturday morning in North East. It happened at 4:00 in the morning in the 2100 block of H Street, in the Langston Terrace area.
Police and firefighters were originally called out to the neighborhood for a car accident, but when they got there things took a turn for the worse. "I heard like a car crash, and a bunch of fireworks, mixed with some gunshots, I wasn't really sure," says Penny Kallan who lives in the neighborhood and called 911.
"They're at it again. It doesn't take much," says another neighbor, Richard Nichols. "I roll off the bed and get on the floor so I won't get hit," he says.
Police and firefighters though, didn't have the luxury of hiding in a bedroom. When units arrived, the vehicle in question was gone. The damage was visible though, mailboxes had been hit and so had a neighbor's car. But just then, the suspect, 25-year-old Brian Anderson of Maryland, came back to the scene. "While they were out there investigating, apparently the assailant returned to the scene, opened fire on both the firefighters and the police," says Dabney Hudson with the Fire Fighters Association.
Police say Anderson fired off about 12 to 14 shots at police, firefighters and bystanders. Fortunately, no one was hit. "They were shaken up, they were obviously scared, didn't know what to do," says Hudson.
Police say Anderson drove off again, but they caught up with him and his passenger, 27-year-old Diana McCullough on East Capitol Street.
They were both arrested. Anderson was charged with felony assault on a police officer, destruction of property, carrying a weapon without a license and leaving the scene of an accident.
The fire truck involved in the incident, however, was parked just a couple of blocks away from here as part of a "soft posting," which, according to the city is a crime-deterrent. But firefighters say incidents like this are just the perfect example of why these soft postings simply don't work. "The police were there, the firefighters were there, this gentleman opened fire on a crowd of witnesses," says Hudson. "It's frustrating. It's an issue we've spoken out about publicly; we aren't crime fighters, we aren't equipped to handle this nor do we deter crime. It's one of those situations you just duck cover and hope for the best, but it's one of those situations we shouldn't be in."
No one was seriously hurt and police did not fire their weapons.
