The victims had been standing in an apartment building courtyard in Washington's Columbia Heights neighborhood when the drive-by
shooting took place on Thursday night, Metropolitan Police commander Stuart Emerman said.
With mass shootings and gun violence a regular feature of
American life, controversy over the use of assault rifles has entered the 2020 presidential race, with candidate and former U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke declaring at a
Democratic debate that he would confiscate such rifles.