Police recover car involved in Telegraph Road shootout

Exterior of building with two cars in parking lot
Midieast Studios on Telegraph Road is seen on Wednesday morning.

Police recovered a vehicle they believe was involved in the shootout in front of a recording studio and doggie daycare on Telegraph Road on Tuesday afternoon.

The Mitsubishi sedan was one of two cars carrying participants in the shootout, and while police could not say exactly where it was found, it was located somewhere in the Mount Vernon police district.

At least two men in the Mitsubishi, as well as the driver, remain at large. The two men in the vehicle jumped out of the car and opened fire on another vehicle in the parking lot of Midieast Studios and Reserved Barking in the 6400 block of Telegraph Road around 4 p.m. on Wednesday. The surveillance video below shows the car fleeing northbound on Telegraph Road after the two men fired off multiple rounds from their handguns.

Another car involved in the shooting, a Toyota sedan, pulled out of the lot and later stopped on James Drive in the Fort Lyon Heights neighborhood near Huntington. When police found the Toyota on James Drive, two men were suffering from gunshot wounds. A third man was found suffering from gunshot wounds in the Midieast Studios parking lot.

Surveillance video, seen below, shows the Toyota being shot multiple times — presumably by the two men in the Mitsubishi — with one person exiting the car during the shooting and another returning fire from the backseat before it pulled away.

Police have not released the ages of the men involved, and all three shooting victims sustained injuries that are not considered life-threatening.

The shooting was the second in less than 24 hours in the greater Richmond Highway area. Late Monday night two teenagers were wounded during a shooting at a playground in the 3000 block of Fordson Court in Gum Springs (see map). The teens suffered injuries that were non-life-threatening.

Police say they are investigating whether the two shootings are related, and have said they may be gang-related.

On Wednesday morning, customers of Reserved Barking dropped off their dogs as usual, and people appeared to be inside Midieast Studio. While an employee from Reserved Barking spoke with Covering The Corridor on background, nobody answered the door at the studio, which was also the scene of a shooting in February.

The Reserved Barking employee said he was grateful nobody else was injured considering the shooting occurred on a day when many customers were picking up their dogs after work, as well as dropping them off for boarding for the holiday weekend.

“Most of the people heard it in the [Reserved Barking] building and they thought it was fireworks,” said the employee, who was not there at the time of the shootings but came in to help in the aftermath.

The employee credited police for setting up a system that allowed dog owners to come and go from the facility despite the ongoing investigation in the wake of the shooting, which closed Telegraph Road briefly and created large traffic backups.

“The cops had arranged it so they were finding out who was arriving for the dogs and they were helping to shuttle the dogs back and forth,” the employee said. “It was really nice of them considering there was a whole investigation going on … . They were making it easier for us on a very difficult day for us.”

Anyone with information on Tuesday’s shooting is asked to call the FCPD’s Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers or by texting “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES (274637).