Cops: Dangerous Gunman Opens Fire On Innocent Bystanders

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Omar "O" Garris could be in the D.C. Metro area and police say he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Cops are on the manhunt for a suspected gang member after violence erupted in a D.C. suburb.

A summer night in Landover, Md. turned violent when cops say a brazen gunman opened fire on three unsuspecting friends.

It was June 15, 2007 around 1:40 a.m., just a few miles from where the Washington Redskins play their home games. Police say a gray Chevy Impala with a man and woman inside was parked in the 7000 block of Kent Town Drive; another woman stood chatting with them by the driver’s side door.

According to a witness, headlights appeared down the dimly-lit street, catching the group's attention. The woman outside the car turned her head to see a white Cadillac pulling up beside them.

Cops say the woman recognized the driver as a familiar face -- 31-year-old Omar Isaiah Garris, a man she'd known from the neighborhood for about two years. But according to police, she quickly found herself in a completely unfamiliar situation: staring down the barrel of a gun.

As she took off running, cops say she heard gunshots being fired and screams in the distance, followed by the squeal of the Cadillac's tires speeding away.

Though she wasn’t struck, her two acquaintances were; the woman behind the wheel in the abdomen and the male passenger in the wrist, according to police.

Suspect Has A Pattern Of Violence, Gun Charges

Thanks to the woman's eyewitness account, cops knew Garris was the shooter, and they quickly learned his motive. Police believe Garris mistook the people in the car for his neighbors, who he believed to be connected with the violent shooting death of his brother just two months earlier.

Cops say Garris is a longtime member of the local D.C. street gang known as the "1-7 Crew," a group of thugs with numerous murder and assault charges who take no mercy on their victims.

According to police, this wasn’t the first time Garris acted out violently.

Cops say he served time in jail for violating his parole on charges of Assault with a Dangerous Weapon and Carrying a Pistol Without a License.

Authorities say he can now add two counts of Attempted 1st Degree Murder among other charges to that rap sheet for his brutal assault that June evening.

Authorities: D.C. Gang Member Still At Large

According to police, Garris -- known on the street as “O” -- has two aliases: Kenneth Lorenzo Smith and Ulysses White.

Police say he suffers from a Napoleon complex standing at just 5’5” and frequently intimidates anyone who has been witness to any of his crimes.

The white Cadillac -- which police believe to be his cousin’s -- has a Maryland registration with a partial plate number of “4CH.”

Authorities believe Garris is somewhere in the D.C. metro area could be securing the help of his family to elude police.

Two innocent bystanders are injured and police believe that Garris’ violent history could repeat itself.

Cops are enlisting the public's help to get this gangbanger off the streets and into a jail cell where he belongs.