TeaThe scene around Washington’s Farragut Square on Wednesday afternoon appears to be in line with Donald Trump’s most loathsome stereotype of the crime-ridden capital, requiring federal troops to reinforce law and order.
The area is normally reserved for professional office workers, coffee shops, and lunch spots, but instead it became the hallmark of a major crime scene as news spread that two National Guard soldiers had been shot. Authorities later said the suspect in the shooting had been identified as an Afghan man.
Within minutes of the shooting outside the Farragut North Metro station, squads of fellow Guard soldiers, police officers and heavily armed Secret Service personnel descended on the usually quiet area and immediately cordoned off neighboring streets.
Workers in nearby offices were barred from exiting into the square and asked to use the rear entrance instead.
From the Guardian’s Washington bureau, looking toward the square, the area was lit with the flashing lights of police and rescue vehicles, and frantic activity as law enforcement personnel roamed the streets and a helicopter hovered above.
It was an unsettling backdrop for the place named after David Farragut, a distinguished Union naval commander in the American Civil War who was immortalized by his famous battle cry, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead” during the Battle of Mobile Bay.
At the square itself, the initial shock spread dismay among local residents, who immediately flocked to the area after hearing about the incident.
One of the first to arrive was Gary Goodweather, the Democratic candidate for next year’s mayoral election, who was having lunch on 14th Street in Washington when he learned of the shooting.
Goodweather, a former U.S. Army captain who served in the National Guard, described himself as appalled, suggesting that Trump’s deployment of federal forces on the streets of Washington was an invitation to violence.
“If I’m completely honest, we were expecting this. It makes me very sad,” he said. “We knew Trump was going to do this to the city. He tried to do this in his first administration. He knew what he was doing when he activated the National Guard.
“The National Guard should not have been in our city for law enforcement.”
Asked whether the Trump administration bore moral responsibility for the shooting by deploying the guards, Goodweather paused for several seconds before responding: “Yes.
“Look around us. These are citizens, they are residents, they are human beings. Activating the United States military against our own countrymen inside Washington DC is the wrong message.”
Goodweather said he feared the administration would respond by increasing military deployments, which he said would “inflame” the atmosphere on the streets.
“Please, don’t let this happen,” he said. “Enforcing more of a National Guard military presence is the opposite of what we need to do right now.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered 500 additional National Guard troops into the city at Trump’s request.
Jesse Lovell, 51, a self-employed editor and consultant, rushed from his home in the Northwest District of Washington immediately after hearing the news.
“I wanted to know what was going on because this is an area I go to frequently,” he said. “It’s terrible.”
Lovell said he was concerned about possible political motivations behind the shooting but tried to avoid apportioning blame. However, he said many residents were angry about the “occupation” of the capital by federal troops.
The object of outrage, he said, was not the National Guard but other federal agents who were involved in the arrests.
“This has been going on for several months and we’re hearing that it could go on into the next year because of the so-called crime emergency, which I don’t accept for a second,” he said.
“I know crime in D.C. and here isn’t what it used to be. But I don’t think there have been any incidents between the National Guard and local residents.”
Addressing reporters across the street from the shooting site, FBI Director Kash Patel did not address any of these concerns, but instead delivered a strict law and order message while paying tribute to National Guard members, whom he called “heroes.”
“We will explore every clue, every evidence (to find the culprit),” he said. “This is the best power of the American government.”
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