Ron Estes Remembers Intern, Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, Who Was Murdered In D.C.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) spoke about Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, an intern for his who was murdered in Washington D.C..

Transcript

00:00My name is Ron Estes. I'm the congressman from Kansas 4th Congressional District.

00:10We've talked in here today about we want to have a safe capital for our country.

00:17And right now, that's not what we have.

00:19The murder rate in Washington, D.C., about 27 and a half incidences per 100,000 residents,

00:28is larger than so many other world capitals around the world.

00:32You can list off other countries, Bogota, Lima, Islamabad, Madrid, other places around even the United States.

00:39The murder rate and the violent crime rate in Washington, D.C. is so bad.

00:43And that's why President Trump stepped up, because as members of Congress,

00:48we have the responsibility to address and protect and oversee what goes on in the District of Columbia.

00:55We didn't want a nation's capital to be in a state where that state would be a special state

01:01and get special designation because of that.

01:04So we wanted to make sure that it was federal responsibility to make sure that things were addressed there.

01:09On June 30th today, or June 30th this year, an intern in my office, Eric Tarpinian-Chacham,

01:17was murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C.

01:19It was a senseless crime, and to this day it's not been solved by the Washington, D.C. police.

01:26We want to make sure that we have a safe capital.

01:29That's why I applaud President Trump and the work that he's doing in terms of making sure that we do have a safe capital.

01:35Yesterday, I was able to walk around the Navy Yard with my daughter,

01:38and it was great to see the National Guards out there patrolling around.

01:46It was a safe environment for people to hang out.

01:48It was nice.

01:49There was a family there having a birthday party for one of their children.

01:52And we want to make sure that we have a capital that Americans are proud of.

01:57It should be a clean capital.

01:59It should be a safe capital.

02:00We want to be able to have American citizens come here and enjoy their capital.

02:04We want to have foreign dignitaries come here and be impressed and enjoy the fact that they've come to America

02:11and that we have a nation's capital that we're proud of and we want to support.

02:15So I applaud the effort that we're working to make sure that we have safer cities,

02:20that we have a safer capital, and that we reduce the crime rate that's been so rampant here in Washington, D.C.