A young man from Massachusetts was shot dead in Washington D.C. just after starting his summer internship for a Republican congressman.
21-year-old Eric Tarpinian-Jachym was caught in the middle of an incident of street violence Monday night. He died at a hospital the next day.
The college senior had recently joined the staff of Kansas Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS), who shared his condolences in a statement.
"I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile," Estes said in a press release. "We are grateful to Eric for his service to Kansas' 4th District and the country."
The authorities have a grainy video of the shooting, which began as an "altercation" between two groups of individuals, one of whom was also shot, a 16-year-old male. Tarpinian-Jachym was caught in the crossfire, along with an adult female bystander.
The female victim is in stable condition, and the teenage victim is being treated for a damaged spine. Police confirmed that Tarpinian-Jachym was not an intended target. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital Tuesday.
According to police, the suspects emerged from a vehicle and started shooting at a second group outside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Police believe the teenage victim was involved in the exchange, the Washington Post noted.
The killing occurred on a street corner in Shaw, a rough neighborhood in the generally affluent northwestern quadrant of D.C., which contains many of the city's safest and most desirable areas.
“We believe the two groups had an [earlier] altercation that did not result initially in gunfire,” D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said at a press conference.
Police have recovered the suspects' black Acura, but no arrests have been made yet. The police are offering $25,000 to anyone who can help them bring the perpetrators to justice.
The senseless killing highlights a continued crime problem in the nation's capital, where some members of Congress and their staffs have been victimized in brutal, random attacks.
There were 274 homicides in 2023, the city's highest murder rate in 25 years. While violent crime has fallen since then, the city has a long way to go: Tarpinian-Jachym was the 85th homicide victim this year, just a slight drop from 89 at the same time last year.
At a press conference Thursday, Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser refused to comment on whether the intern's killing would spur political change. “Let’s stay on July Fourth,” she said.
Tarpinian-Jachym was a senior at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was majoring in finance with a minor in political science. Lilliana Myers, who met him in a fellowship program with the conservative Fund for American Studies, said Tarpinian-Jachym was fun and ambitious.
