Two people were shot in a Ballston apartment building early New Year’s Day amid a chaotic night in parts of Arlington.
Police were dispatched to the Rixey building at the Marymount University Ballston campus just after 1 a.m. for a report of a person with a gun on an upper floor of the building. That floor is used for short-term rentals by an “apartment hotel” service, according to scanner traffic.
Police and medics later located a pair of people suffering gunshot wounds, one on a nearby street corner and the other dropped off at Virginia Hospital Center. The wounds — one to a hand, the other to a foot — were described by police as not life threatening.
Arlington County police say they determined that the suspect, a 21-year-old D.C. man, fired the first shot after a verbal dispute with a group of people “inside a common area of a residential building.” Someone then fired back, striking the suspect, who was later arrested after being treated at the hospital.
More, below, from an ACPD press release.
The Arlington County Police Department’s Homicide/Robbery Unit is announcing an arrest in the January 1, 2025, shooting inside a residential building in the 1000 block of N. Glebe Road. Malachi Rawlings, 21, of Washington DC was arrested and charged with Aggravated Malicious Wounding, Use of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, and Felon in Possession of a Firearm. He is being held without bond in the Arlington County Detention Facility.
At approximately 1:11 a.m., police responded to the report of an assault with a weapon. The preliminary investigation indicates the male suspect became engaged in a verbal dispute with a group of individuals inside a common area of a residential building. The male suspect then brandished and discharged a firearm, striking the victim. One member of the group then discharged a firearm, striking the suspect.
The victim, an adult male, self-reported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The suspect was located at the intersection of N. Glebe Road and 11th Street N. Medics transported him to an area hospital for treatment of a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. Following medical treatment, he was arrested and charged.
This remains an active criminal investigation. Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Arlington County Police Department’s Homicide/Robbery Unit at 703-228-4180 or [email protected] or anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).
A man of the same name and approximate age as the suspect was charged with firearm offenses in D.C. in 2022 and early 2024, according to Metropolitan Police Department press releases.
The shooting happened on an exceptionally busy New Year’s night for Arlington police and sheriff’s deputies, who responded to calls ranging from bar fights to domestic disturbances to highly intoxicated revelers to a pedestrian struck by a hit-and-run driver.
Much of the activity was concentrated in Clarendon’s busy bar district.
