Tristan Johnson, 17, was a young man with plans — and the energy and determination to make them come true — says his godfather, Davian Morgan.

“When I’d talk to him about future plans, he’d be like, ‘Well, you know, starting a vending machine business or like owning my own trucking company,’” said Davian Morgan, Tristan’s godfather.

Pictures from Tristan’s life — his years at Ingenuity Prep in the District, then at Dr. Henry A. Wise High School in Prince George’s County — fill Morgan’s phone.

“He was very outgoing,” Morgan said. “So even if you didn’t know him, you knew of him, and he was eventually going to find his way to introduce you to himself.

Family members know Tristan was with some friends around 3 p.m. Saturday when he was shot and killed in the 1900 block of C Street SE, not far from the Stadium Armory Metro Station.

D.C. police sources familiar with the investigation say the suspects may have been attempting to rob the 17-year-old of his jacket.

As his family grieves the sudden, horrifying loss, they are finding some comfort from the outpouring of love from his many friends.

“At least 20 of my previous students found my number some way, somehow and they were like, ‘Are you okay? We’re just checking in to see if you’re okay. We’re praying for you,’” Morgan said. “And in my mind, I should be saying this to you

In his grief, Morgan says he has wondered about those thousands of federal officers and National Guard troops deployed to fight crime in the District.

“I think that is probably one of the questions right now that his mother is asking herself over and over and over again,” Morgan said. “Of all the places for it to happen, in broad daylight.”

Tristan was fatally shot just one block from the D.C. Armory, a hub of operations for the estimated two thousand National Guard troops deployed to the nation’s capital to fight crime.

WASHINGTON – Former President Barack Obama surprised a group of veterans who flew into D.C. over the weekend ahead of Veterans Day.

Obama surprises veterans

What we know:

A group of veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars flew into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Saturday, as part of an honor flight from Wisconsin. The veterans were visiting their memorials ahead of Veterans Day on Tuesday.

“When you come to greet our Honor Flight Veterans at DCA, you never know who might be there. On Saturday, our Veterans from Badger Honor Flight were surprised when Barack Obama showed up to greet them when they arrived at DCA,” said a post on the Honor Flight Facebook page on Saturday. “He boarded the plane after it landed and addressed the group, then shook every hand and presented each with a presidential challenge coin!”

Obama shared video of the moment on his own Facebook page on Tuesday, showing him greeting the veterans as they got off the plane, and the large crowd of people greeting them as they walked into the terminal.

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What they’re saying:

“Ahead of Veterans Day, I was honored to welcome a flight of veterans and their families as they arrived in DC,” the former president wrote. “To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day.”

What is an Honor Flight?

Dig deeper:

Honor Flight DCA is a volunteer organization that flies veterans to Washington from over 100 hubs across the U.S. The organization brings the veterans to D.C. to visit the memorials for the wars they fought in, free of charge.

The group has flown approximately 300,000 veterans to D.C. over the last 20 years, according to their website.

What’s next:

The Honor Flight organization has one more flight scheduled in 2025, with a group from Austin arriving at DCA on Dec. 6.

A judge on Monday allowed the continued deployment of more than 300 West Virginia National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., as part of President Donald Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Richard D. Lindsay made the ruling after hearing arguments in a lawsuit by a civic organization that argued Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey exceeded his authority when he authorized the Guard’s deployment in August.

West Virginia is among several states that sent National Guard members to the nation’s capital. While the state National Guard has said its deployment could last until the end of November, it is consulting with the governor’s office and others on the possibility of extending the stay.

READ MORE: While wary of Trump’s motives, some D.C. residents uneasily back parts of the National Guard deployment

Formal orders were issued last week extending the deployment of the District of Columbia’s National Guard in the city through the end of February.

“We are pleased with the judge’s decision,” Jace Goins, the state’s chief deputy attorney general, said outside the court in Charleston. “The National Guard are going nowhere. They’re staying in D.C. They’re not going to be redeployed to West Virginia.

“The judge made the determination that the governor made a lawful decision deploying the National Guard to D.C. by a lawful request of the president.”

The West Virginia Citizen Action Group, which filed the lawsuit, argued that under state law the governor could deploy the National Guard out of state only for certain purposes, such as responding to a natural disaster or another state’s emergency request.

The civic group claimed that it was harmed by the deployment by being forced to refocus its resources away from government accountability and transparency. The state attorney general’s office sought to reject the case, saying the group has not been harmed and lacked standing to challenge Morrisey’s decision.

“It was a simple issue of a broad, lawful request by the president and a lawful deployment by the governor. That’s all,” Goins said.

Aubrey Sparks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia chapter, said she didn’t believe it was the correct decision.

“I think that West Virginia law is clear,” Sparks said. “I think what the state was permitted to do here is to skirt past West Virginia law simply because Trump asked them to. And that’s not how the law works. We remain deeply concerned about it.”

Trump issued an executive order in August declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital, although the Department of Justice itself says violent crime there is at a 30-year low.

Within a month, more than 2,300 Guard troops from eight states and the District of Columbia were patrolling under the Army secretary’s command. Trump also deployed hundreds of federal agents to assist them.