It was not immediately clear if a suspect had been taken into custody in the incident, but a law enforcement source told Reuters it was not considered an "active shooter" situation.
The source said the five wounded victims of the shooting were expected to survive their injuries.
Deadliest recent mass shootings in the United States
The gunfire erupted in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, about two (three km) from the White House on Thursday night.
ABC affiliate WJLA-TV posted images on Twitter of ambulances carrying victims from the scene and said there had been a "massive" police response at the intersection of 14th Street and Columbia Road.
The attack in Washington comes just over a month after 30 people were killed in two separate shootings on the same day in Ohio and Texas.
On August 3, a 21-year-old white male identified as Patrick Crusius opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, killing 20 people and wounding 26 others.
Hours later, 10 people - including the perpetrator Connor Betts and his sister Meghan Betts - were killed and 27 others injured in a shooting at a bar in Dayton, Ohio.
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