Man with baseball bat attacks Virginia congressman’s staff; suspect held

A man with a metal baseball bat walked into the northern Virginia office of U.S. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly on Monday, asked for him and struck two of his workers with the bat, including an intern on her first workday, police and the congressman said.

The attack marked the latest in a sharp uptick in violence aimed at lawmakers or those close to them.

Fairfax city police said that officers arrived within minutes and took the man into custody without incident and that the two staff members were being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

The veteran Democratic congressman, who wasn’t in the office at the time, said he knew of no motive for the attack, calling it “unconscionable and devastating” in a post on Twitter.

Connolly said in an interview that the suspect was known to police in Fairfax, adding, “He’s never made threats to us so it was unprovoked, unexpected and inexplicable.”

“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, 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.”

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Connolly said the two people attacked were an intern, who was struck in the side, and his outreach director, who was hit on the head.

“Both of them are conscious and talking. They’re both are in shock. Their families were with them too,” Connolly said.

The U.S. Capitol Police and Fairfax city police identified the suspect as Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax. He was being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on charges of malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding.

It was not immediately clear whether the man had an attorney who could speak for him.

“At this time, it is not clear what the suspect’s motivation may have been,” Capitol Police said in a news release announcing a joint investigation with the Fairfax City Police Department.

Police said the suspect is facing other charges in connection with a separate attack involving a baseball bat a short time earlier on Monday.

Fairfax police said in a statement Monday evening that a man later identified as Pham approached a woman in her parked car about five miles from Connolly’s office at 10:37 a.m. The man asked the woman whether she was white, then hit her windshield with a bat and ran away, according to police. The woman was not injured, the statement said.

Special agents with the Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section have been sent to Fairfax.

Fairfax police spokesperson Sgt. Lisa Gardner said police received a call about the attack at Connolly’s district office around 10:50 a.m.

“You could absolutely tell that the people inside were scared. They were hiding. Someone swinging a bat around, I would be scared as well,” Gardner said.

Police arrived in about five minutes and located the suspect in the office, quickly detaining him without further incident, Gardner said.

Police said in a news release that one police officer required treatment for a minor injury.

Connolly, who is serving his eighth term in Congress, represents Virginia’s Fairfax County-based 11th District in the Washington suburbs. He told CNN that his office sustained damage, including broken windows.

Monday was not Pham’s first encounter with law enforcement, according to police and court records.

Last year, officers responded to a Fairfax home after a man called dispatch saying he wished to harm others, police said in a statement.

Officers who responded encountered Pham, who assaulted them and attempted to take a firearm, according to the statement, which said the officers sustained minor injuries.

Pham was taken into custody and charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer.

Court records show those charges were eventually dropped.

Detectives were at an address Monday evening that Pham listed as his home in Fairfax.

Last month, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger testified about the heightened threat climate across the country.

“One of the biggest challenges we face today is dealing with the sheer increase in the number of threats against members of Congress — approximately 400% over the past six years,” he said. “Over the course of the last year, the world has continuously changed, becoming more violent and uncertain.”

Other elected officials from Virginia swiftly condemned the violence.

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) retweeted Connolly’s statement, calling the attack an “extraordinarily disturbing development.”

“Intimidation and violence — especially against public servants — has no place in our society,” he said.

“The coward who did this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” tweeted Virginia Atty. Gen. Jason Miyares, a Republican.

Since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, threats to lawmakers and their families have increased sharply. The U.S. Capitol Police investigated about 7,500 cases of potential threats against members of Congress in 2022. The year before, they investigated around 10,000 threats to members, more than twice the number from four years earlier.

In October, a man broke into the San Francisco home of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, demanding to speak with her, before he struck her husband, Paul, over the head with a hammer.

In July, a man accosted U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican who was running for governor of New York, as he spoke at a campaign event and told Zeldin, “You’re done.” Zeldin wrestled the man to the ground and escaped with only 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,” said 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.”