Six people, all adults, were shot and wounded late Friday near Decades, a nightclub in the Dupont Circle area of Northwest Washington, police said.
None of the wounds appeared to be life-threatening, and a 29-year-old man was arrested shortly after gunfire broke out around 11:20 p.m., according to police. Five of the six victims were employees of Decades. Police said they also recovered a gun.
D.C. police identified the suspect as Rennwel Mantock of Hyattsville, Md. Authorities said he was charged with several counts of assault with intent to kill, possession of unregistered ammunition and possession of an unregistered firearm.
An argument at the club in the 1200 block of Connecticut Avenue NW apparently touched off the shooting, according to police. The gunfire occurred “just outside” the club, said police spokesman Tom Lynch. A patron said it was busy at the time, with a line of people outside awaiting admission.
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According to an arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court on Saturday, Mantock told police he was dancing with a woman when a security guard ordered him to leave. He told police, the affidavit says, that the guard “grabbed him by the neck and punched him,” then dragged him outside, where the guard punched him again and threw him to the ground.
Mantock “was very upset,” police said in the affidavit, and they alleged he “retaliated by brandishing his handgun and then began firing in the direction of Decade’s security.”
Police did not provide the reason for Mantock’s ejection from the bar. Efforts to reach his attorney were not successful. A Superior Court judge ordered him detained and set a hearing for May 7.
Police had initially listed five victims. They later said six people — four men and two women — had been wounded by gunfire.
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A Washington Post photographer, Jabin Botsford, was inside Decades at the time and linked it to the gunfire.
He was on the second floor and heard shots, he said. A security guard told second-floor patrons that “somebody was shooting down there,” Botsford said.
About 75 people were in the second-floor section of the club, Botsford said. About half left immediately via a fire escape at the rear of the club.
Lindsey Appiah, the deputy mayor for public safety and justice, said the city’s nightlife task force was active in the area when the shooting occurred. The group includes members from several agencies who help with crowd control and vehicular traffic, among other duties, in areas with high concentrations of bars and restaurants.
Appiah said a task force enforcement official helped police quickly locate a suspect and find the firearm that had been discarded.
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The deputy mayor said the police chief ordered Decades closed for 72 hours, which she can do when she feels public safety is compromised. The bar owners will then be summoned to a hearing before the liquor board in order to reopen. Efforts to reach a representative of Decades was not successful.
Connecticut Avenue, regarded as one of the city’s premier addresses, runs north and south for miles through one of the safer areas of the District. Shootings there are relatively rare.
About two hours later, police said, an unrelated shooting occurred inside a bar in another nightlife area, U Street Northwest, about a mile from Dupont Circle.
Lynch, the spokesman for D.C. police, said the man — identified as Kenneth Goins, 43, of Salisbury, Md. — had been shot multiple times and was found dead inside Desperados Burgers & Bar. Lynch, said it appears the man was shot inside the establishment. Efforts to reach a representative from the restaurant were not successful.
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