By MATTHEW BARAKAT (Associated Press)
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A person with a steel baseball bat walked into the workplace of U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly in Fairfax, Virginia, requested for him — after which struck two members of his workers within the higher physique with the bat, police stated. It was the most recent assault amid a pointy uptick in violence directed at lawmakers and their households.
Fairfax City Police in northern Virginia stated in a tweet {that a} suspect is in custody and the victims are being handled for accidents that aren’t life-threatening.
In a press release posted on Twitter, Connolly stated the person entered his district workplace Monday morning and requested for him earlier than “committing an act of violence” in opposition to two workers members.
“The thought that someone would take advantage of my staff’s accessibility to commit an act of violence is unconscionable and devastating,” Connolly stated.
Fairfax police spokesperson Sgt. Lisa Gardner stated police acquired a name concerning the assault at Connolly’s district workplace at about 10:50 a.m. Connolly was not working in that workplace on Monday, she stated. Gardner stated some workers members hid in the course of the assault.
Officers obtained to the workplace inside 5 minutes and situated the suspect within the workplace, Gardner stated. He was taken into custody rapidly with out additional incident, she stated.
Connolly, a Democrat at the moment serving his eighth time period in Congress, represents Virginia’s Fairfax County-based eleventh District within the Washington suburbs. He informed CNN that his workplace sustained harm, together with damaged home windows.
Other elected officers from Virginia swiftly condemned the violence.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner retweeted Connolly’s assertion, calling the assault an “extraordinarily disturbing development.”
“Intimidation and violence – especially against public servants – has no place in our society,” he stated.
“The coward who did this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” tweeted Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican.
Since the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, threats to lawmakers and their households have elevated sharply. The U.S. Capitol Police investigated round 7,500 circumstances of potential threats in opposition to members of Congress in 2022. The 12 months earlier than, they investigated round 10,000 threats to members, greater than twice the quantity from 4 years earlier.
In October, a person broke into the San Francisco house of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, demanding to talk along with her, earlier than he smashed her husband, Paul, over the pinnacle with a hammer.
In July, a person accosted New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican who was operating for governor of New York, as he spoke at a marketing campaign occasion and informed Zeldin, “You’re done.” Zeldin wrestled the person to the bottom and escaped with solely a minor scrape.
“Violence does not belong in our political system and my prayers are with Rep. Gerry Connolly’s staff for a speedy recovery,” stated Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican. “We’ve seen this against our judiciary, we’ve seen this against our legislative branch and it has no place in our Commonwealth.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”