Eric Tarpinian-Jachym was 20 and a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst when he traveled to Washington, D.C., for a congressional internship. On the night of June 30, 2025, while on a street near the Mount Vernon Square Metro station, he was an innocent bystander caught in a shooting. A stolen vehicle stopped, three armed people emerged and opened fire on two young men riding a bicycle. Tarpinian-Jachym was hit four times and died the next day at a hospital.

Two others — a 16-year-old boy and a woman — were wounded but survived. Investigators later recovered 79 rounds, two rifles, and a 9mm pistol at the scene. In early September two 17-year-olds, Jailen Lucas and Kelvin Thomas Jr., were arrested and charged as adults with first-degree murder while armed. A third suspect, 18-year-old Naqwan Antonio Lucas, was arrested in Maryland by late October and has been linked to this case and to a separate fatal shooting of a 17-year-old girl that happened days after the June 30 attack.

This was a young life cut short while pursuing public service; does anyone have information about Eric’s movements that night or about the incident near Mount Vernon Square?