Tamara Jachym, the mother of slain congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, said she was watching President Donald Trump's announcement Monday about federalizing the police force in Washington, D.C., when he referenced her late son, and that moment assured her that "things are going to change" in the city she told Newsmax.
"And I started to cry, and I said, 'Eric, you didn't die in vain. They care about you,'" Jachym said on "Finnerty."
Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, was killed by gunfire on June 30 one mile from the White House, an innocent bystander in a shooting between rival groups, police said.
In announcing his plans to make Washington safer, including deploying the National Guard, Trump cited recent cases of violence in the city, including "a 21-year-old congressional intern was tragically killed after being hit by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting."
"I was watching it," Jachym said. "My daughter was on the couch, and I was sitting in the chair, Eric's ashes in front of me in his picture and some dried flowers. And I could not believe what I heard.
"Things are going to change so nobody else has to relive what we lived. Hopefully, that's what the goal is: safety in D.C.
"And so it made me feel so good inside that this didn't fall upon deaf ears with this president and his administration, for all the people who have been harmed by serious crime in D.C.," she added.
Tarpinian-Jachym was an intern for Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan.
"One of the greatest moments of his life was to be invited to the Rose Garden. He said it was the best day of his life in D.C. He said he loved it there ... My son loved D.C.," Jachym said. "And he loved the people in D.C. — from Capitol Hill, to the people who worked in McDonald's, to the interns, to the, you know, his professors at college."
Jachym assailed the protesters who took to the streets against Trump's action on Monday.
"They should have fought back against the thugs that are killing everybody and maiming them," she said. "That was the most idiotic thing I ever saw in my life. These people don't even care about their neighbors. ... It's just sickening."
Jachym added, "These people have no common sense. They don't care about humanity at all. It's an agenda and that's what they're pushing."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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