The employee was killed while trying to protect a woman from a gunman who had confronted people on a bus and then in a Metro station, the police said. Three others were injured.
WASHINGTON — A transit employee was killed and three others were injured on Wednesday morning after a gunman confronted people on a bus and later in a Metro station in Southeast Washington, the police said.
The employee was trying to protect a woman when he was killed, according to the authorities. Bystanders later tackled the gunman, the police said, and he was taken into custody at the station.
The violent string of events began shortly after 9 a.m. with an altercation on a bus, where the attacker brandished a gun and then followed a passenger off the bus and shot him in the legs, according to the police.
The gunman then went down the escalator into the Potomac Avenue Metro station and came upon a person buying a fare card, the police said, and proceeded to shoot the person in the leg after another altercation.
Then the attacker made his way to the platform and confronted a woman, the authorities said. A transit employee “attempted to intervene to protect this young lady,” Ashan M. Benedict, the executive assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, said at a news conference.
“By doing so, he’s immediately shot by our shooter,” the chief said. The employee, who was not identified, was pronounced dead on the scene.
“His heroism has to be recognized here today,” Chief Benedict said.
A second transit worker was apparently able to de-escalate the situation, the police said. The gunman at one point got on a train in the station but then got off, and he was tackled by bystanders before being taken into custody, the police said.
In addition to the transit worker who was killed, two people were shot in the legs and another person suffered a hand injury, the authorities said.
Mayor Muriel Bowser extended her condolences to the family of the transit employee who was killed.
“We don’t know a lot about this shooter at this moment, other than we had a person with a gun who’s created yet another tragedy in our city,” Ms. Bowser said.
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