Photos and Dueling Accounts Raise Questions About Café 8 Shooting

Cafe 8 Owner Elif Sam (at left facing camera) appeared before the ANC6B Public Safety committee, chaired by Commissioner Brian Gorman, center.

Image from DC US Attorney’s Office.

Photos and Dueling Accounts Raise Questions About Café 8 Shooting

by Larry Janezich

Posted October 28, 2026

Monday night, Café 8 owner Elif Sam appeared before the ANC6B Public Safety committee chaired by Commissioner Brian Gorman.  She recounted the shooting incident which occurred outside Café 8 around 11pm on Sunday, October 18. 

Last Wednesday, October 21, the US Attorney General’s Office of the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release with an account of the incident with photos gleaned from Café 8 video.

Both accounts raise questions about exactly what happened that night.

Sam’s description portrayed Cafe 8 as doing everything it can to prevent violence and community disturbance, adding, “Whatever we can do to help, we will do it.” 

In her account of the October 18 shooting, presumably based on the extensive video cameras located outside the business, Sam stated there was a disturbance outside of Café 8 involving a patron who had been inside, and who had a gun which was not detected when he entered Café 8.  She said it was unfortunate that the National Guard were in a van parked outside rather than in a more visible posture on the street since their presence discourages violence.  When they saw the fight outside Cafe 8, members of the Guard got out of the van and “both sides started shooting” …   and “bullets were flying everywhere” … “unfortunately, a National Guard member was shot.”  Sam wasn’t sure by whom.  Sam stated that the patron who had the gun was shot and the National Guard pushed the paramedics away when they came to attend to the shooting victim.  She also said that the National Guard who was shot didn’t realize it at first because he kept walking.  She said there was another incident that started inside Café 8 which had nothing to do with the disturbance that occurred outside.  Sam concluded that “Barracks Row needs more police especially police on bikes and scooters like we used to have.”  She said she bought a stand up metal detector and hand wand for Café 8 and was making (unspecified) operational changes.

Sam’s account of the shooting, which was frankly difficult to follow and no doubt motivated by her own business interests, nevertheless raised questions about when the exchange of gunfire began, whether the National Guard responded with disproportionate use of lethal force, and whether the National Guard applied lethal force in a cavalier fashion, endangering the lives of innocent bystanders and failing to allow paramedics access to the scene.

Unfortunately, the press release issued last Wednesday by the US Attorney General’s Office, which included nine photos gleaned from Café 8 video tape, does not answer these questions. 

According to the press release, “at about 11:10 p.m., on Oct. 18, 2026, officers from the Metropolitan Police Department’s First District responded to a report of a shooting in the 400 block of 8th Street SE.” 

But the time-stamped photos released from by the DOJ show patrons of Café 8 milling about on the sidewalk at 11:12 pm.  The timing is crucial, because events unfold very quickly. 

According to the DOJ description of the event, the on-scene investigation determined that members of the National Guard attempted to stop a fight and an individual involved in the fight brandished a pistol and began shooting. 

It says that the National Guard members ordered the suspect to drop the firearm. The suspect attempted to flee while he simultaneously discharged his pistol towards the National Guard members.  Three National Guard members returned fire, striking the suspect. 

But, like Sam’s account, the DOJ’s narrative raises its own questions.  One photo captioned “Individuals scatter at the sound of a gunshot,” does not actually show that.  One person who had participated in the fight outside Café 8 is fleeing the scene, but others are walking or standing.  More confusing, the next photo (timestamped as about one second later) shows one gentleman in a gray parka with black stripes who had previously been shown walking or facing south now turned and walks north, toward what the DOJ described as the site of shots fired, an about-face that would seem doubtful in the face of active gunfire.

Finally, the image stills then show alleged shooter Jerrell Jackson brandishing a gun pointed toward the staircase of the smoke shop next to Café 8, where another of the participants in the initial fight had fled.  But it does not establish him actually firing.  Based on what has been made available to the public, it is not possible to conclude that Jackson was the first to fire a shot.

Extensive video evidence from which these images were culled could very well answer a number of these questions.  Obtaining this evidence and establishing an unbiased account of the shooting would seem paramount.  Not only would this help ANC6B and residents as they grapple with how best to prevent other shootings, it would clarify whether the National Guard operate as a help or a hindrance in high-stakes encounters.  For example, regardless of who fired the first shot, the question of bystanders and whether, as Sam alleged, the National Guard waved off paramedics need to be answered.

To see the US Attorney General’s Press Release and the photos, go here:  https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/dc-man-charged-shootout-left-georgia-national-guardsman-injured