Eric Tarpinian-Jachym believed he had nothing to fear. The 21-year-old congressional intern was standing not far from the seat of power in the heart of the capital, a place that should be the most protected in the United States.
He was loving life in Washington – the people, the walks, the invitations to dinners for rising political stars, the hustle and bustle so different to the rural town of his childhood in Massachusetts.
But on the night of June 30, Eric was heading toward Mount Vernon Square Metro station to grab a late meal when gunfire erupted.
‘My son had a false sense of security that time of night in that area,’ his mother, Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, 62, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. ‘It happened a mile away from the White House.
‘Eric took the bullet for a 16-year-old. He was an innocent bystander. I think America needs to know that they’re not safe in D.C. My son paid the ultimate price.’
That randomness makes the pain all the more devastating. Eric was not the intended target. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the line of fire in a city struggling to get its streets under control.
He became Washington’s 85th homicide of the year, one of several shooting victims in a weekend of violence. A woman and a teenage boy suffered serious injuries in the same incident near the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, among others elsewhere in the capital.
Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, worked for Republican Congressman Rob Estes of Kansas as a congressional intern. He died when gunfire erupted in an altercation between two groups on June 30
Eric, pictured with his mother Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym celebrating his 17th birthday, had a close relationship with his parents
Days later, over the Fourth of July holiday, at least four were killed, including three-year-old Honesty Cheadle, struck by a stray bullet while sitting in a car after watching the fireworks with her family.
The growing reach and unpredictability of the crime wave was perhaps underscored by the arrest of a man in December for physically assaulting congresswoman Nancy Mace inside the Rayburn Office Building just steps from where lawmakers conduct daily business.
Despite a modest drop in overall homicides compared with this time last year, Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Department chief Pamela Smith are under pressure to address the recent spate of shootings, stabbings, car jackings and robberies.
There is talk now of potential political fallout from some Congress members using Eric’s death and the latest violent crime as a way to repeal the District of Columbia’s Home Rule Act.
‘These two women have to get on the same page and work collaboratively with the federal government if they need assistance to help make Washington D.C. and the District of Columbia safe for the people who live there, work there, and the people who visit from all over the world,’ Tamara said.
‘This is not a political issue. It is a safety issue. If it happened to my son it could happen to anyone. We need to have more police officers at night on the streets. This is a problem in the nation’s capital. It should be the safest place in America.’
Asked about the shooting of Eric at a Fourth of July Preparedness press briefing, Smith said the police department was working with the FBI to help enhance grainy video footage captured of the suspects, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
‘Major Crime Unit Detectives are doing good work making sure we can kinda bring this case to a close,’ she said, before adding that she had expressed condolences to the family.
But with Monday marking two weeks since the tragedy, Tamara said she was still uncertain about how her son died.
‘I don’t know anything,’ she said. ‘They don’t tell the family. I am being sincere about that. I know it’s a homicide and they are being very tight-lipped and want to catch these people.
‘But no one told me: ‘The FBI is getting involved, Ms Jachym.’ Nobody called me to say: ‘They are increasing the reward [from $25,000 to $40,000], Ms Jachym.’
‘No communication. I don’t know where that is coming from, not even letting us know. I know it is an investigation but hearing it on the news? We are the parents. That is what is hurtful to us.’
Eric pictured with his family: (l-r) brother Jeremy, 27; father Bob, 71; mother Tamara, 61; and sister Angela, 31 at a friend’s wedding on Long Island in August 2024
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department responded to reports of gunfire around 10.30pm, near 1200 7th Street. Pictured: Police cordon off the area near the shooting
Multiple masked suspects exited a vehicle and opened fire on a group of people, striking three individuals, according to police. Pictured: Yellow police tape blocks off area around the shooting
Upon arrival, officers found Eric Tarpinian-Jachym unconscious, along with two other victims who were conscious
When the Daily Mail inquired if anyone from the Metropolitan Police Department had contacted the victim’s family, Tom Lynch, a Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist, said he would look into it. By Friday afternoon, there was still no response.
Lynch said that he did not have significant updates to provide on the investigation. ‘We continue to implore the public to come forward with tips,’ he added.
Eric’s mother has been left piecing together the details of her son’s last moments as best she can. Friends have said he was texting them while heading to the Metro en route to McDonald’s, and that he did not have his wallet.
On the night of the shooting, she learned, several masked men got out of a black Acura SUV, and opened fire. A man in a wheelchair flung himself off a nearby stoop and tried to take cover. He later described it as: ‘Bullet after bullet after bullet’, and then someone called 911.
There had apparently been an argument earlier in the day between one of the gunshot victims and this group of people, and the situation subsequently escalated.
Though the shooting took place on the Monday night, Tamara did not learn until two days later that it was Eric who had been ‘gunned down and murdered’.
Her daughter, Angela, 31, a social worker, was at home the morning after the shooting when a call came in from the office of Representative Rob Estes to say that Eric had not shown up for work which was ‘not like him. He’s very conscientious.’
Far from fearing the worst, Tamara assumed that her son, who had a heart condition and bad asthma, might have experienced a medical episode.
His friends pinged Eric’s phone and contacted her to say that it was at the police department. Though concerned by now, she was not yet panicked. Her immediate reaction was, ‘Oh, my God, what the heck did that kid do? Did he lose his phone? God, I hope he didn’t get mugged?’
While Tamara was calling the police to seek information, Angela saw a news report that there had been a shooting in DC.
‘Oh, Angela,’ she told her daughter, ‘that’s not Eric. Come on.’
But Angela’s instincts told her otherwise. Tamara began to call and text her son, asking, ‘Eric, are you okay? Please, Eric?’ There was no reply.
The MPD is offering a $40,000 reward for information on the shooting death of Eric Tarpinian-Jachym
At this point, she asked the police to do a welfare check at his apartment at the Wharf, a waterfront neighborhood in Southwest DC. One of his two roommates broke the locked bedroom door down but Eric wasn’t there.
Tamara began pleading for any information available from a police officer, who told her that he wasn’t able to share anything and she would be called in a few hours.
When mother and daughter finally got someone on the line, all they were given was a contact number in Washington to call on arrival and, by early morning Wednesday, Eric’s parents were on a plane heading to DC.
When they arrived, Tamara asked a detective: ‘I want to know if my son is dead or alive. Is he the one in the hospital?’
She had packed enough clothing for a month, still thinking that her son was merely wounded. ‘I didn’t know if Eric was on a ventilator in a hospital. I honestly thought my son was the boy shot. I didn’t think he was dead.’
But she was soon to learn that a bullet hit and killed Eric and that the intended target, a teenager, had been paralyzed from a spinal injury. She barely recalls handing over her son’s dental records to a detective.
‘Every national paper was calling for me to make a comment and I just found out my baby died,’ she said through tears. ‘It was surreal. Like a bad dream.
‘You’re prepared for an illness that might take them. Yes, it’s not easy. You’re prepared for a car accident, maybe, because kids are kids and everyone’s distracted. I’ve always been prepared for that with all my children. Like, God, I don’t want it to happen. But you never think a homicide.’
Until that moment, Eric had overcome many adversities in his short life with enormous determination and grit, Tamara said, from almost dying during childbirth to ongoing health challenges and severe dyslexia.
‘He had a 135 IQ. He couldn’t read, and writing was a struggle but he worked really hard to read and he become a good writer. He was very good at mathematics, taught himself multiplication. A doctor told him he had exceptional deductive reasoning. He also taught himself chess.’
Eric, standing by the Rose Garden near The White House, loved DC, his mother said
Eric started his internship with US Republican Representative Ron Estes for Kansas in June
And, so, there he was in April, standing outside the White House Rose Garden, texting his mother photographs of himself dressed in khakis and a pink shirt. ‘He said, ‘Mom, the military band was so beautiful. It was the best day of my life. Thank you.»
‘He looked so preppy in that photo. But he loved to be in the woods.’
It was only last month that she heard the same excitement in his voice again, when he met some influential political leaders.
‘He called me and said: ‘Mom, I sat behind Chairman Powell [talking] about the reserve and interest rates and C-Span was there, and I learned so much.»
‘He was so humble, a very kind person, and he liked all people. He didn’t care what race you were, what party you were with.’
Representative Ron Estes issued a statement, saying he will remember Eric’s ‘kind heart’
Passionate about public service and intent on making a positive difference, Eric had thrown himself into working for Estes, the Republican representative for Kansas, after a fellowship at the Fund for American Studies.
In a statement issued soon after his death, Estes said: ‘I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile. We are grateful to Eric for his service to Kansas’ 4th District and the country.’
Eric was also an accomplished outdoorsman and professional archer in the USA Archery Nationals but was forced to put down his bow for good after becoming unwell during the COVID pandemic.
A member of many recreational clubs, the Pioneer Valley Boat and Surf appointed him as the youngest person on the board of directors and wanted Eric to be club president because of his ‘perseverance and how he respected life, animals and fishing’.
One of his greatest joys was going on fishing trips all over Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York with his father. Tamara shared a picture from late May when they went to Block Island together – Eric beams out, holding a giant striped bass.
‘They fished all day and he said to his father, ‘Dad this was the best day with you and I will never forget it,» she said.
The two would go to Dunkin Donuts every day at 4pm whether Eric was at home in Granby or studying finance and political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Bob ordered coffee and his son a Refresher before looking at the goings-on in the stock market and talking about fishing.
One of Eric’s greatest joys was going on fishing trips all over with his father, Bob. Above, he proudly holds the catch of the day – a striped bass – during a trip to Block Island on May 28
Another massive catch for Eric who was night fishing in Quonnie, Rhode Island with a friend
The waiting – for answers and for Eric’s body – has compounded Tamara and Bob’s loss.
After so many agonizing days, they finally learned late last week that their son would be coming home for a funeral mass at St Cecilia Parish in Wilbraham at 11am on Thursday.
‘His father has aged 20 years,’ she said. ‘My husband’s 72. This is killing him, not knowing and just getting bits of pieces of information.’
Eric had been acutely aware that his time in Washington was coming at the cost of being with his parents, Tamara said. ‘I feel jipped,’ he once explained to her.
‘You guys had me so late in life. You were 40 and Dad was 50. My siblings had Dad longer and I just want to spend every minute with you both because I know you’re getting older and will die, and I don’t want that.’
Tamara wept recounting the conversation.
Eric had been right that their time left together was going to be short but, in the end, it was they who lost him too soon.
In honor of Eric’s life and the values he embodied, a scholarship is being established by his family and the Fund for American Studies. The Eric Tarpinian-Jachym Memorial Scholarship will support future undergraduate students to attend the Fund’s programs in Washington, D.C.
