As residents and city officials grapple with one of the deadliest crimes ever in the District, one local candidate was quick to use Tuesday night’s mass shooting on South Capitol Street as part of his campaign for elected office.

Clark Ray, who is challenging Phil Mendelson for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council, sent out a press release Wednesday reacting to the shooting, and used the opportunity to take Mendelson to task for his record on crime. “Crime will be a key issue across D.C. this year, and only one candidate stands out for his ability to ignore this: Phil Mendelson. He recently wrote to concerned residents that ‘violence in Shaw is not a legislative problem.’ He was forced to back peddle, but crime doesn’t back peddle. You have to chase it, and win. Phil has tripped up in that chase for years,” he said.

Ray, a former head of the Department of Parks and Recreation and former Reserve Officer with the Metropolitan Police Department, also Tweeted Wednesday afternoon: “Just visited the site of last nights shooting. N SW – senseless & tragic – We Deserve Better!”

These statements form part of a newly aggressive Ray campaign. On Tuesday, Ray claimed Mendelson was running for the seat being vacated by Council Chair Vincent Gray, accusing his rival of being “bored” in his current position. Mendelson has not said that he’s running for Gray’s seat, though he has yet to rule it out.

Mendelson, as chair of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, does play an important role in crime-related legislation, and took some amount of heat last year for opposing various provisions of a crime bill supported by Mayor Adrian Fenty. But he was quick to denounce Ray’s posturing.

“I’m proud of my record that shows real results, not grandstanding over tragic events,” Mendelson wrote in an email.

Mendelson’s spokesperson, Jason Shedlock, had even harsher words for Ray.

“I suppose that a candidate that has been struggling to get any traction at all has to write something outrageous to get noticed at some point. It’s not shocking that his statement, though rife with rhetoric, is devoid of any substance at all,” Shedlock said.