The scene around Washington’s Farragut Square on Wednesday afternoon seemed to fit Donald Trump’s most lurid stereotypes of a crime-ridden capital in need of federal troops to bring a firm smack of law and order.
An area normally the preserve of professional office workers, coffee shops and lunch venues instead bore the hallmarks of a major crime scene as news spread that two national guard troops had been shot. Authorities later said the shooting suspect had been identified as an Afghan man.
