National Guard Member Shot in Leg Breaking Up Street Fight in Southeast Washington
A member of the National Guard was shot in the leg late Sunday after Guard members intervened in a street fight in Washington, D.C. Police identified the suspect as a repeat offender, and both men are expected to recover.
WASHINGTON — A member of the National Guard was shot in the leg late Sunday night after Guard members stepped in to break up a street fight in southeast Washington, police said. The suspect was also shot, and both men were taken to hospitals with injuries that are not life-threatening.
Jeffery Carroll, the interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, said the shooting happened at about 11:10 p.m. Sunday in the 400 block of 8th Street SE, in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Capitol Hill. Seven or eight Guard members were riding in a van when they saw a fight on the sidewalk and got out to intervene.
“They exited their vehicle to try to intervene to try to stop the fight from occurring when they heard gunshots,” Carroll told the Associated Press. A man involved in the fight then pulled out a firearm and began shooting. When Guard members told him to drop the gun as he ran into an alley, he pointed the weapon at them, and three Guard members returned fire, Carroll said.
The Guard member was struck in the leg, and the suspect was hit in the abdomen. Both were treated at hospitals, and the wounded Guard member has since been released. Investigators recovered a gun in an alley near the scene, along with at least 14 shell casings, Fox News reported. No other suspects were at large, and no other Guard members or civilians were hurt.
Suspect identified as repeat offender
The U.S. Marshals Service identified the suspect as Jerrell Jackson, 41, on Monday. Federal officials said Jackson had previously been convicted of two counts of assault of a police officer and one count of carrying a pistol without a license, and had three parole violations, according to Fox News. Court records reviewed by Fox News show at least 13 prior criminal cases or arrests in the District dating to 2004, involving gun and drug offenses, assault, threats and unlawful entry; some ended in convictions, while others were dismissed or resolved through diversion.
“We are praying this National Guard member has a quick and speedy recovery,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a statement to Fox News. “The suspect in the shooting has a lengthy rap sheet including two counts of assault of a police officer, illegally carrying a pistol, and multiple parole violations.”
Context: the Guard’s deployment in the capital
The shooting came more than a year after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington in August 2025 as part of a crackdown on violent crime, Military.com reported. At the deployment’s peak, about 5,000 troops were in the city. The deployment has been controversial: critics have questioned its cost and whether crime was already falling before the troops arrived, while the administration has pointed to lower crime as evidence it is working.
It was not the first attack on Guard members in the city. Military.com reported that in November 2025, two Guardsmen were shot near the White House, killing one and critically wounding the other. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, was charged with more than a dozen federal counts in that attack and has pleaded not guilty.
Reporting based on coverage by Military.com and Fox News.
