Congressman Gerry Connolly denounced an assailant for hitting two of his staff members with a baseball bat (Picture: AP)
A man with a metal baseball bat asked for a US lawmaker at his office and then attacked two of his staff members.
Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly of Virginia and police said the assailant walked into his office in the northern part of the state on Monday and struck two of his employees, including an intern on her first day.
‘This morning, an individual entered my District Office armed with a baseball and asked for me before committing an act of violence against two members of my staff,’ stated Connolly.
The suspect was arrested and both of Connolly’s workers were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The suspect in the baseball bat attack is Xuan-Kha Tran Pham of Fairfax (Picture: AP)
‘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 City police arrived within minutes of the attack and took the suspect into custody without incident.
Connolly thanked the police department and medical professionals ‘for their quick response’ and said he has the ‘best team in Congress’ that ‘make themselves available to constituents and members of the public every day’.
‘Right now, our focus is on ensuring they are receiving the care they need,’ he stated.
A law enforcement officer surveys the office of Rep Gerry Connelly on Monday (Picture: AP)
Fairfax police cruisers sit outside Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly’s district office after a person wielding a baseball bat attacked two of his staff members (Picture: Reuters)
The suspect was known to law enforcement officials and ‘never made threats to us so it was unprovoked, unexpected and inexplicable’, Connolly said.
‘I have no reason to believe that his motivation was politically motivated, but it is possible that the sort of toxic political environment we all live in, you know, set him off,’ Connolly said. ‘And I would just hope all of us would take a little more time to be careful about what we say and how we say it.’
Police identified the suspect as Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax. He has been charged with malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding and is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
The incident happened more than six months after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi was hammered by a man who was looking for her at their San Francisco home. Nancy was not home when the suspect, David DePape, began pounding her husband before police intervened.
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A man attacked two staff members in Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly’s office in northern Virginia.
