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A man armed with a baseball bat and demanding a meeting with Rep. Gerald E. Connolly of the Virginia Democratic Party went on a rampage inside the office of the Rep. This is the latest event in a surge in political violence. all over the country.
Fairfax Municipal Police said Xuan Kha Trang Pham, 49, a Fairfax resident, has been charged with one count of felony aggravated bodily injury and one count of aggravated bodily injury. He was unrestrained and restrained.
Police said they had not yet determined a motive, and Capitol Police said in a statement they did not know the suspect.
Sgt. Fairfax Police Department spokeswoman Lisa Gardner said at a news conference Monday afternoon that the assailant entered Mr. Connolly’s office around 10:30 a.m. with what appeared to be a metal baseball bat and stabbed two officers. said to have beaten body.
By the time the police arrived about five minutes after the 911 call, both employees were said to be conscious. Connolly said in a statement that the individual had committed a “violent act” and that two of his aides were taken to hospital, although their injuries were not life-threatening.
“I could clearly see that the people inside were scared. They were hiding,” Sergeant Gardner said.
“It’s frankly terrifying when someone walks into an office with a bat and starts swinging at an innocent victim,” she added.
Connolly, who represents the suburbs of Northern Virginia west of Washington, DC, was first elected to Congress in 2008. In a statement after the attack, he said he had “the best team in Congress.”
“My district office staff work every day to be available to voters and the public,” Connolly said in a statement. “The idea of someone using my staff’s accessibility to commit acts of violence is unconscionable and devastating.”
Connolly told CNN that the attacker hit a senior aide in the head with a metal bat and hit the intern in the side on his first day of work.
Members of Parliament are protected in the Capitol by the Capitol Police, but local offices typically do not receive such protection unless there is a specific known threat to Members of Parliament.
In Monday’s raid, the perpetrators severely damaged Mr. Connolly’s office, shattered the glass in a conference room and destroyed a computer.
Pham last year filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA in Virginia, demanding $29 million for accusations that the CIA imprisoned him for decades in a “physics-based inferior perspective called the Book World.” . The lawsuit was handwritten, claiming authorities were “brutally torturing” him with a “degenerative disorder” from the “fourth dimension.”
The top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, called the attack “horrifying.”
“We thank law enforcement and medical professionals for their swift action in apprehending the suspects and caring for those affected in the Capitol community,” Jeffries said. “The safety of our members and staff remains paramount, especially given the increasing political violence in our country.”
Jeffries urged House Sgt. and Capitol Police to “serve the American people with patriotism and passion, and take all precautions to protect members of Congress and employees who are entitled to do so without fear of safety.” requested,” he said. ”
The attack comes amid an uptick in intimidation and violent political discourse against lawmakers in recent years. In October, an intruder shouted “Where’s Nancy?” inside her San Francisco home and beat Congressman Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, with a hammer.
Last month, Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Munger testified at the Capitol about the growing threat landscape across the country. Last year, there were more than 7,000 threats against members of parliament.
“One of the biggest challenges we face today is dealing with the nearly 400 percent spike in the number of threats against lawmakers over the last six years,” he said. “In the last year, the world has changed constantly, becoming more violent and uncertain.”
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