In a moving tribute to his former intern, Rep. Jim Himes told Congress yesterday that Kevin Sutherland’s “spirit of openness, of optimism, of possibility—that spirit must live on in this chamber and in our hearts.”

Sutherland was killed aboard a Metro train on July 4th in a robbery that turned into a grisly murder. According to the police arrest affidavit, Sutherland was stabbed repeatedly as about ten people watched the scene unfold in terror, too afraid to intervene. Police have charged 18-year-old Jasper Spires with first-degree murder while armed.

Friends and family have remembered Sutherland as a kind soul, someone who loved politics and wanted improve the world.

“He was caring and sensitive and he really cared enough that he wanted to make the world a better place,” his mother,Theresa Sutherland, told the Trumbell Times. Said his father, Doug Sutherland: “It seems like almost everybody that ever met him fell in love with him.”

The 24-year-old, an American University graduate who had recently started working as a digital political strategist at New Blue Interactive, had previously interned for Himes, a Connecticut congressman.

“He was my campaign volunteer, my intern, and my friend,” Himes said on the House floor yesterday. “Kevin was in Washington because he believed the best of us, each one of us. He believed that we could come together. He believed that we could set aside our petty prejudices. He believed that we could bring our voices together in this chamber and make a better world.”