Two 17-year-old suspects have been arrested for the slaying of a congressional intern at Washington, D.C. 

Jaylin Lucas and Kelvin Thomas Jr. are both being charged as adults for murder in the first degree, the U.S. attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, announced during a press conference on Friday. They are being charged for their alleged involvement in the murder of 21-year-old Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a University of Massachusetts Amherst student who was interning for a Kansas congressman, Ron Estes.

Ms. Pirro, who is spearheading the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign against what officials describe as an epidemic of crime, pointed to the arrests as evidence that juvenile offenders in the district are escaping accountability through a broken family court system.

“They don’t need to be protected,” she said, adding that she needs to be given greater authority to charge as adults juveniles who commit violent crimes. “They need to be made accountable and we need to be protected.”

“Eric didn’t deserve to be gunned down and the system failed him. The system that felt that juveniles needed to be coddled.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi applauded the efforts that led to their arrest.

“Thanks to outstanding investigative work from @FBI, two of his suspected killers were just arrested. If convicted, they will face severe justice,” she said in a post on X.

“We hope that this provides some measure of solace to his family.”

Tarpinian-Jachym, was on 7th Street in the Northwest section of the city in the late evening hours of June 30 when a group of suspects got out of a car near the M Street intersection and unloaded a barrage of gunfire. The hail of bullets immediately left the intern unconscious from a gunshot wound and injured two other bystanders.

Messrs. Lucas and Thomas, along with a potential third suspect who has not been apprehended, then quickly fled the scene.

Tarpinian-Jachym was then transported to an area hospital by EMS workers who arrived at the scene but died from his injuries a short while later, according to a statement at the time from the Metropolitan Police Department. He was not believed to have been the intended target.

“I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile,” Mr. Estes said in a statement released after the shooting. “We are grateful to Eric for his service to Kansas’ 4th District and the country.”