DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro charges 2 teens with murder for slaying of congressional intern in June
WASHINGTON — DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Friday that two teenagers have been charged with first-degree murder and will be tried as adults for the slaying of a congressional intern in June — and that a third suspect is still being pursued.
Jalen Lucas and Kelvin Thomas Jr., both 17, were apprehended in DC and charged with killing Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, in a July 1 shootout about a mile northeast of the White House.
The three gunmen allegedly unloaded 79 rounds from two rifles and a 9mm handgun at a “neighborhood crew” rival riding a bike, authorities said, but struck Tarpinian-Jachym and other bystanders.
“Eric didn’t deserve to be gunned down, and the system failed him — the system that felt that juveniles needed to be coddled. And it’s bad not to be gunned down on any street, but to be gunned down in our nation’s capital is an outrage,” Pirro said.
“The DC Council thinks that these kids need to be protected. They don’t need to be protected. They need to be made accountable, and we need to be protected… This killing underscores why we need the authority to prosecute these younger kids, because they’re not kids, they’re criminals.”
Pirro said that the case was being prosecuted under DC law, rather than federal law, meaning the two suspects are not eligible for the death penalty — as President Trump has threatened.
Tarpinian-Jachym was murdered at an intersection with a Metro station just off the Washington Convention Center. The neighborhood has pockets of public housing associated with higher rates of violent crime.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowswer, a Democrat, appeared alongside Pirro and endorsed trying the 17-year-olds as adults, who allegedly fled the shooting in a stolen car.
“I would agree with the judge that cold blooded murder qualifies as a crime that should have a 17 year old considered as an adult,” said Bowser, who this week said she welcomes an extended federal surge in DC — despite many fellow Democrats slamming Trump’s intervention.
Trump last month surged federal resources, including executive-branch agents and National Guard members, onto DC’s streets last month after the slaying and the subsequent Aug. 3 assault on former Department of Government Efficiency staffer Edward Coristine, 19.
The president also threatened to tear down the “slums” where perpetrators live, but has not publicly elaborated on that plan.
The ongoing federal crime crackdown has seized nearly 200 illegal guns, according to White House data.
Pirro said in her own remarks that she wants Congress to repeal locally ratified laws that stripped the power to prosecute minors from the US Attorney’s Office — giving it instead to the elected DC attorney general — and that let judges set aside the prison sentences of people under age 24 who commit crimes.
She has repeatedly highlighted the July sentence of probation for a 19-year-old who pleaded guilty to shooting a stranger in the chest on a bus.
“I am advocating, and have advocated for jurisdiction over juveniles, 14, 15, 16, and 17. They need to be brought into the criminal court so that we can prosecute them, because if we do, we can prevent the murder that happened here based upon the histories of these two and the third individual that I cannot talk about,” Pirro said.
“We’re going to need Congress to change the law. And I believe that if there’s any case that calls for it, it is this case that makes it clear that these young punks who are on the street with guns, shooting at each other, killing innocent people, they need to be brought into my system and not in the family court system for rehabilitation, because they’ve been in that system more than once, and I don’t think they’ve been rehabilitated.”
Tarpinian-Jachym, a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Isenberg School of Management, was working as an intern for Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.).
Police said that hundreds of hours of surveillance camera footage were reviewed to identify the suspects.
Other high-profile murders in DC have not been solved despite plentiful surveillance footage in the capital — such as Dr. Rakesh Patel, 33, who was murdered with his own car following a 2002 carjacking.