Federal prosecutors on Friday reportedly announced charges against two teenagers in the killing of a congressional intern, a crime that has come to symbolize Washington’s worsening violence and fueled calls for tougher punishments, including the death penalty.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said the suspects — both 17 — will face first-degree murder while armed and will be tried as adults. Authorities are pursuing a third suspect.
“This killing underscores why we need the authority to prosecute these younger kids,” Pirro said. “Because they’re not kids; they’re criminals — they’re violent criminals. We have to hold them accountable.”
The victim, 21-year-old Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, was a senior at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and had been interning in the office of Representative Ron Estes, Republican of Kansas, for only a month. He was shot on June 30 while walking near the Walter E. Washington Convention Center when multiple gunmen opened fire in a drive-by.
Pirro described him as an “innocent bystander who was caught in a violent act that was not meant for him.” He died the next day in a hospital. Two others wounded in the shooting — a woman and a 16-year-old boy — survived.
Because the case is being prosecuted locally, the death penalty is not on the table. But President Donald Trump, who has made law and order central to his administration, has floated the idea of reinstating capital punishment for murder cases in the District.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi reinforced that message on Friday, writing on X that if convicted, the suspects would face “severe justice.”
The killing has heightened scrutiny on crime in the nation’s capital. Mr. Trump has already pointed to the case, along with the assault of a Department of Government Efficiency staffer, as justification for deploying the National Guard. “The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States,” he said on Truth Social after a separate counternarcotics operation. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America.”
Tarpinian-Jachym’s death has added urgency to those calls. His mother, Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, said last month that extraordinary measures were warranted to restore public safety.
“If people can’t handle 30 days of the National Guard and others patrolling to free up the time of the patrolman in D.C. and the detectives to work on other cases that are unsolved, then there’s a problem,” she told NewsNation. “I want them to find his killers, or killer.”
Representative Estes thanked prosecutors and investigators for securing arrests. “Although nothing can reverse this horrific act of violence that took the life of a kind and bright young man, my hope is that today’s announcement will bring peace and closure to the family and friends of Eric, and all who knew and loved him,” he said.
The shooting has become more than a criminal case; it is now a flashpoint in a broader debate over how to confront violent crime in Washington. For conservatives, it has become evidence that leniency for youthful offenders and a refusal to use the harshest penalties leave innocent Americans vulnerable.
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