WASHINGTON - Investigators believe the 48-year-old woman killed Saturday night in Columbia Heights was a bystander caught in the crossfire, sources tell ABC 7 News.

Deborah Ann Brown was gunned down about 9:30 p.m. in the 2900 block of 14th Street NW, not far from the Dunkin' Donuts where she worked.

The shooting happened just after the annual Columbia Heights Day wrapped up. According to sources, a group of males was sitting on the steps in front of the Greater Washington Urban League when a suspect on a bike rolled up and opened fire on the group, just as Brown was walking past.

She was shot, sources believe, by a bullet intended for someone else.

It "could have been my wife or anybody else walking down that street," said Sherman Johnson, who lives in the neighborhood. "Could've been a child. It really disturbed me."

Sources added police are investigating if the deadly shooting was the result of a beef between crews from 13th Street and Columbia Road, and 14th and Girard streets.

"She wasn't a perfect human being but she didn't deserve this," said her uncle, who asked not to be identified. Her family is "doing the best [it] can," he said. "It's so unexpected."

Friends and relatives explained Brown had recently taken a job at the Dunkin' Donuts on 14th street, where co-workers described her as kind hearted. Friends said after struggling with some personal issues, Brown was saving up for her own place and had turned her life around.

Brown's ex-boyfriend was in shock.

"This killing they doing has got to stop," he said. 

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at (202) 727-9099 or 1-889-919-CRIM [E]. (1-888-919-2746)

The Metropolitan Police Department (web | news) is currently offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for any homicide committed in the District of Columbia.

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