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An 18-year-old man has been charged with murder in the killings of a congressional intern, who was hit by stray gunfire in D.C.’s Mount Vernon Square in late June, and a teen girl, who was gunned down inside a home in the Carver-Langston neighborhood on the Fourth of July. Naqwan Lucas, 18, faces a slew of charges, including murder, in the June 30 shooting of 21-year-old Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, of Granby, Massachusetts. Tarpinian-Jachym was a congressional intern for Kansas Rep. Ron Estes. Two other teens are also charged with murder in that case. Police said they did not believe the intern was the intended target. A woman and a teenage boy were also injured in the shooting. According to the preliminary investigation, the teens exited from a car and began firing at “a group.” “They were a crew. They were the Tyler House. They were masked up and they were gunned up and they were ready for a fight,” U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said during a Thursday news conference. Pirro said Lucas is the brother of 17-year-old Jailen Lucas, who was also charged in the shooting, along with 17-year-old Kelvin Thomas Jr. Officers found Tarpinian-Jachym unconscious at the scene. He died days later. Two others were shot in the barrage of gunfire, totaling 79 rounds, according to police, but survived. Estes said in a statement that Tarpinian-Jachym was a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, majoring in finance with a minor in political science. Police said that during the course of their investigation into that shooting, they connected Lucas to the July 4 fatal shooting of his girlfriend, 17-year-old Zoey Kelley. She was killed around 5:15 p.m. inside a home on Benning Road in the Northeast neighborhood of Carver-Langston. Her body was found in a storage container in a closet inside the home which was rented by Lucas’ father, according to authorities. Pirro read a letter by Kelley’s mother, Shanika, saying, “I see my baby that morning. That evening, I didn’t see her no more. She never came back home. She never returned to us.” Days before Lucas’ arrest, police, in addition to the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, had offered a $75,000 reward for any information that led to his arrest. WTOP’s Gaby Arancibia and Ciara Wells contributed to this report. Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here. © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
