Suspected DC National Guard shooting gunman ID’d, charged with multiple firearms offenses after ‘brazen attack’

A Washington man accused of wounding a Georgia National Guard member who tried to help break up a fight has been charged with multiple gun crimes.

Jarrell Lamont Jackson, 41, is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

He is accused of shooting Georgia National Guard member Karon Jones, 20, in the leg when guard members sought to intervene in the fight Sunday.

A National Guard soldier stands near the scene where a guard member was shot in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. The guardsman tried to break up a fight before being shot by a participant, who was then shot by other soldiers, leaving both with non-life-threatening injuries. ZUMAPRESS.com

Three members of the unit returned fire, wounding Jackson. Neither man sustained life-threatening injuries.

The shooting happened at about 11:10 p.m. as seven or eight guard members in a parked van were monitoring the fight on a sidewalk in southeast Washington in the Eastern Market neighborhood, said Jeffery Carroll, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.

“This brazen attack on the National Guard by a repeat violent offender firing into a crowded corridor is exactly the kind of lawlessness our city refuses to tolerate,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in announcing the charges.

President Donald Trump deployed the guard to Washington in August 2025 as part of what he said was a crime-fighting mission. The force, which rose to a peak of about 5,000 troops over the summer, has supported arrest operations, patrolled city streets and neighborhoods and participated in cleanup efforts.

National Guard members patrol 14th Street alongside Washington D.C. Metro police on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C. An increased presence of law enforcement has been seen throughout the nation’s capital since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered in federal officers and the U.S. National Guard. Getty Images

Trump’s Republican administration says the deployment has contributed to a decrease in crime in the city, where crime was already on the decline before the National Guard arrived.

Officials and activists in the overwhelmingly Democratic city say the deployment is a waste of taxpayer money and has normalized the militarization of a major American city.

A National Guard soldier stands in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. The guardsman tried to break up a fight in the early hours of Monday but was shot by one of the participants before other National Guard soldiers shot the suspect, and both were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. ZUMAPRESS.com

The city, which filed a lawsuit in September 2025, has argued that the mobilization is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement. A federal appeals court panel heard arguments Oct. 14 in that lawsuit. A lower court sided with D.C.

Over 2,900 Guard members remain in the district, including more than 500 from Georgia, the second largest contingent behind the District of Columbia, which had 656 members involved in the Joint Task Force-District of Columbia as of Tuesday.

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