U.S. Marshals Identify 41-Year-Old Jerrell Jackson in D.C. Guard Shooting

Q: Why did a routine street fight escalate into a shootout with the National Guard in the nation's capital?

It escalated because a person involved in the fight allegedly pulled a gun when National Guard members stepped in, then kept firing after being ordered to drop the weapon. According to Metropolitan Police Department interim Chief Jeffery Carroll, seven or eight Guard members were in a van near the 400 block of 8th Street SE in the Eastern Market area around 11:10 p.m. when they saw a sidewalk fight and got out to break it up. During that intervention, one participant drew a firearm and opened fire. Guard members told the person to drop the gun, but police say the suspect fired again and pointed the weapon at them, prompting three Guard members to return fire. That sequence turned what appears to have been a routine street altercation into an armed confrontation with uniformed personnel. One Guard member was shot in the leg, and the suspect was hit in the abdomen. Both suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were expected to survive. The suspect was hospitalized and placed in custody. What is still not known is why the original fight started. Police said the people involved may have been inside a nearby establishment earlier in the evening, but investigators have not established the trigger for the dispute. Authorities are also still trying to determine which Guard member’s gunfire struck the suspect. The case remains under investigation, and police are seeking witnesses and others involved in the initial fight.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 19

Jerrell Jackson, 41, was identified Monday as the suspect accused of shooting a National Guard member during a street fight on 8th Street SE late Sunday.
At about 11:15 p.m., Guardsmen moved to break up a fight outside a business when at least one man opened fire, wounding a Guard member in the leg; troops returned fire and hit Jackson in the abdomen.
Police said the Guard member was released from the hospital, Jackson was hospitalized, and investigators recovered a gun in a nearby alley along with at least 14 shell casings; no other suspects were being sought.
Federal officials said Jackson is a repeat offender with convictions for assaulting police officers and carrying a pistol without a license, plus three parole violations; court records show at least 13 prior D.C. cases or arrests since 2004.
The shooting hit as the Trump administration promotes its D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which the U.S. Marshals Service says has made more than 18,000 arrests and seized nearly 2,200 illegal guns.