Driver Fatally Shot by Assailant in Another Car

A motorist was shot and killed at the wheel of a Mercedes on the edge of Capitol Hill last night when someone in another car fired into his, D.C. police said.

The shooting occurred about 8:10 p.m. at 15th and D Streets NE in a neighborhood of rowhouses and porches, where residents said such violence is unusual.

The victim was identified by police as Dwight Anthony, 31, of Lanham.

Police said both cars were headed east on D Street when the attacker came up alongside. After the shooting, the Mercedes ran into a low wall around the front yard of a house. A woman who was a passenger in the Mercedes was unhurt, police said.

Police gave no motive in the shooting, which occurred about a mile and a half from the Capitol.

Police said they were looking for a gray or silver Pontiac sedan with tinted windows. It continued east on D Street after the attack, they said.

Shell casings were found at the scene, and neighbors reported hearing as many as seven shots. One said he thought they might have been part of an early Fourth of July observance, and another said he at first suspected thunder.

"I heard pow, pow, pow . . . then boom," said a man who lives near the scene, recounting the sounds of the shots and the car crash.

Another man said he looked out after hearing the noise and saw "a young lady on the sidewalk" who he thought had emerged from the Mercedes. She started screaming, he said, calling for someone to telephone 911.

The shooting scene is less than a mile south of Montello Avenue NE and the Trinidad section where police recently set up a checkpoint to stem a rash of violence.