Murdered Congressional intern's mom says Trump should take over Washington, DC

Yahoo

16 hours ago

As President Donald Trump continues to rail against crime in the nation's capital, saying violence is out of control and that Washington, D.C., should be federalized, the mother of a Congressional intern gunned down in June told ABC News on Thursday that she agrees with the president.
Since beginning his second term in the Oval Office, Trump has slammed local leaders, claiming they have not done enough to crack down on violent crime in the district. The president ramped up his criticism after a 19-year-old former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was left beaten and bloodied early Sunday during an attempted carjacking in northwest Washington, D.C.
Trump said in a social media post that the incident showed that "crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control." The president also suggested that minors involved in such crimes should be prosecuted as adults, "starting at 14."
"If D.C. doesn't get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they're not going to get away with it anymore," Trump said in his post.
Two 15-year-old suspects were arrested in Sunday's assault of the former DOGE employee, identified in a police incident report as 19-year-old Edward Coristine, but investigators said up to eight other perpetrators remain at large.
The carjacking assault came after two other high-profile violent attacks in Washington, D.C., over the past three months.
On May 21, two employees of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum, allegedly by a 31-year-old Illinois man shouting "free, free Palestine." An indictment against the suspect, charging him with federal hate crime and murder, was unsealed this week.
On June 30, Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old intern for Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., was fatally shot in northwest Washington, D.C., when he got caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting, according to police. No arrests have been made in the homicide.
Tarpinian-Jachym's mother, Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, told ABC News on Thursday that she believes that the laws in Washington, D.C., need a drastic overhaul to crack down on juvenile offenders and gang members caught committing violence.
"As far as I'm concerned, if Trump feels that he needs to take it over until they [city leadership] can get their act together and start prosecuting these juveniles and these people to the fullest extent of the law and not slap their hands so they can go out and do it again and get into more violent crime as they age, I feel it's a good idea," said Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, who lives in Massachusetts.
She added, "My son didn't deserve what happened to him. Nobody deserves that. He was shot. He wasn't the intended target."
Washington, D.C., residents can expect to see an increase in federal law enforcement around the city starting as early as this week, a White House official told ABC News. The official stressed that operational details have yet to be finalized, but the White House is working with multiple agencies to use federal and local enforcement to monitor crime in the city.
"Washington, D.C., is an amazing city, but it has sadly been plagued by petty and violent crime for far too long. President Trump is committed to making our Nation's capital safer and even more beautiful for its residents, lawmakers, and visitors from all around the world," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News.
Despite Trump's claims that violent crime in the city has gotten out of hand, police statistics show that in the past two years violent crime in Washington, D.C., has fallen dramatically.
"Compared to where it was two years ago, when it really peaked in 2023, it's down 50%," Jeff Asher, a national crime analyst, told ABC News on Thursday.
Asher said that, statistically, violent crime in Washington, D.C., is back down to levels not seen since before the start of the pandemic in 2020. Overall, violent crime in Washington, D.C., and across the country skyrocketed during the pandemic as criminal courts shut down and jail populations were dramatically reduced in an effort to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Homicides in Washington, D.C., rose from 166 in 2019 to 226 in 2021 and climbed to 274 in 2023, according to crime stats from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.
In the first seven months of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024, overall violent crime has dropped 26%, homicides have fallen 12%, sexual assaults are down nearly 50%, assaults with a dangerous weapon have tumbled 20%, and robberies are down nearly 30%.
Asher, a former crime analyst at the CIA and the New Orleans Police Department, said there has also been a 68% decline in carjackings in Washington, D.C., since 2023. Compared to the first seven months of 2024, carjackings in the city are down 37% this year, Asher said.
MORE: 2 Israeli Embassy staffers killed in 'act of terror' in Washington, DC
"That doesn't disprove that crime is an issue, just like it's an issue in a lot of cities where it's coming down, " Asher said. "But it's certainly not something that's getting worse; it's a problem that's improving."
Despite the improving crime statistics, Trump told reporters on Wednesday that White House lawyers are looking into how to go about federalizing Washington, D.C. He said his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was working with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
A spokesperson for the mayor told ABC News they had no comment on Trump's threat to take over the city.
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"We're considering it, yeah, because the crime is ridiculous," Trump said. "I could show you a chart comparing D.C. to other locations, and you're not going to want to see what it looks like. We want to have a great safe capital, and we're going to have it, and that includes cleanliness and includes other things. We have a capital that's very unsafe."
The district has some autonomy under the 1973 Home Rule Act, which grants residents the ability to manage affairs by electing a mayor and city council members. But final oversight of the district's laws and budget is left to Congress. In 2023, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives blocked two local bills from going into effect, including one that would have updated the district's criminal code.
Trump does appear to have some legal power to direct the Metropolitan Police Department under the Home Rule Act, "whenever [he] determines that special conditions of an emergency nature exist…"
When asked about the falling crime statistics, Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym told ABC News, "I don't believe in statistics because statistics can be skewed in any way."
Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym noted that when her son was killed, Bowser said at a news conference that her son was the city's 84th homicide of the year. As of Thursday, homicides in the city had risen to 99.
"That is our nation's capital; it should be the safest place in the world for anyone to go, in my opinion," Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym told ABC News. "And if they set the tone, then maybe these other Democratic cities and other people that live in these cities will start saying, 'Hey, we're sick of this crime, too.'"