WASHINGTON -- A 34-year-old man shot by D.C. police after allegedly stealing a car at gunpoint died Wednesday following a shootout with responding officers.
Nathaniel McRae was apprehended after a brief car chase and died after the ambulance carrying him to the hospital broke down en route.
The Washington Post reports McRae was transferred to a second ambulance "five to seven minutes" after the first broke down:
A D.C. fire department spokesman said the ambulance carrying the wounded man to Howard University Hospital stopped near Route 295 and Pennsylvania Avenue when a warning light came on indicating that the engine was about to shut down. Tim Wilson, the spokesman, said that problem can occur in late-model vehicles driven continuously for extended periods.
Lon Walls, chief spokesman for the D.C. fire department, said the delayed treatment “did not affect care in any way,” but a conflicting report from WTOP stated, "It was unclear Wednesday evening whether the delay contributed to the man's death. Police had said the man was suffering from life-threatening injuries when he left Barnaby Street."
A Metropolitan Police Department officer was also injured during the incident; he is expected to recover.
The carjacking was the third police-involved shooting in the Washington area Wednesday. Earlier in the afternoon, an off-duty officer was shot after witnessing a robbery in Northeast D.C.
In a separate incident at a Costco in Sterling, Virginia, one woman was killed and a police officer wounded after a woman allegedly pulled a knife on sheriff's deputies. Witnesses reported Costco employees and customers shouting, “Get out of the Costco! Get out of Costco!”
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