(Photo by Scott Davidson)

Two Metropolitan Police Department officers shot and killed a man near the intersection of 1st Street and Wayne Place SE on Tuesday night.

Uniformed officers were patrolling the area in marked vehicles when they came upon 22-year-old Marquese Alston, who reportedly fled into an alley when he saw them. One officer saw Alston reach into his waistband at some point while he fled, Police Chief Peter Newsham said at a press conference on Wednesday. Three officers gave chase, and Alston reportedly fired at them in the alleyway, according to police.

Two of the three pursuing officers fired back, MPD said. Newsham would not discuss the number of rounds fired at the press conference, either by Alston or by the police officers. He said that Alston’s death was “immediately apparent on the scene.”

MPD recovered a semi-automatic pistol and several shell casings they believe belong to Alston at the scene. The department has not released the names of the officers involved. They are all on administrative leave, per MPD policy. No officers were hurt.

Last night, Newsham told reporters that officers had come upon a group of men in an alley and one of them had pulled a weapon and been shot. It’s unclear if Alston was in fact with other men, or if he had simply run into the alley to flee from police. Police did not arrest anyone else at the scene and are not currently looking for any suspects.

Alston was under court supervision and wearing a GPS bracelet related to a previous robbery conviction for which he served time, according to MPD.

The mayor can decide to release body-worn camera footage when it is in the public interest. Her office is currently reviewing footage to determine whether it will be released in this case.

Councilmember Trayon White, who represents Ward 8, shared a series of videos of the incident taken by neighbors. Neighbors can be heard discussing the length of time it took for an ambulance to arrive and complaining about increased police presence in their neighborhood. Videos also show tension breaking out between several community members and police officers trying to rope off the area.

Chief Newsham attempted to address community concerns about the shooting during the press conference, including claims from some witnesses who said they heard a steady stream of shots, indicating there was no exchange of fire.

“There are some unfortunately that use Facebook as a medium for spreading misinformation in our community, and some people, when they see that, they latch onto it,” Newsham said. “I’ve listened to a lot of gun fire over the last 29 years…it’s very difficult to determine an exchange of gunfire just from listening to gun shots.”

Newsham said they have a “pretty significant amount of evidence” that Alston indeed shot at officers.

“We gotta get these illegal firearms out of our community,” the chief said last night. “I don’t see any reason why anyone needs to be standing in any alley in the District of Columbia armed with an illegal firearm.”

This post has been updated.