Three dead, more wounded in Christmas Eve shootings

The United States witnessed a violent Christmas Eve as three people were shot dead in separate incidents and a dozen others suffered wounds in shootings across the country.

On Christmas Eve, police officers in Washington were patrolling a southeastern district upon receiving a call of an ongoing armed robbery.

Police say they killed the suspect after he opened fire on them.

In a separate incident in Washington DC, a woman was shot dead outside a restaurant in Columbia Heights neighborhood. She later succumbed to her injuries.

A similar incident at a shopping mall in New Orleans, Louisiana left a man dead.

The three deaths came while Chicago had the most violent Christmas Eve on Wednesday.

Six men and one woman were shot on Wednesday in six separate shootings in the third most populous city in the US.

Chicago residents also experienced bloody gun violence the day before Christmas Eve.

On Tuesday, five people were shot dead and 12 were injured in separate shootings in Chicago.

The holiday gun violence happened amid anger at police after a surveillance video was released showing a white police officer killing a black man in the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley on Tuesday night.

A crowd gathered and clashed with police on Wednesday at the Mobil gas station where 18 year-old Antonio Martin was shot and killed.