by Representative Angie Craig, D-Minn., was attacked Thursday morning in the elevator of his Washington, DC apartment building, his office said in a statement.
“Representative Craig fended off the attacker and suffered bruising but is otherwise physically fine,” Chief of Staff Nick Coe said. Coe said the shooter fled and there was no evidence the attack was politically motivated.
The Metropolitan Police Department subsequently arrested 26-year-old Kendrick Hamlin and charged him with simple assault.
Craig saw the suspect in the lobby of his building, “acting erratically as if under the influence of an unknown substance,” according to a Metropolitan Police Department report detailing the attack.
He then entered the elevator with her and began doing push-ups before hitting her on the chin and grabbing her by the neck, police said. According to the police report, she told police that she threw her hot coffee at him before he escaped.
In a statement later Thursday, the US Capitol Police said they are also investigating the attack, but “there is no indication that the congresswoman was targeted because of her position.”
Elected in 2018, Craig is Minnesota’s first openly LGBTQ member of Congress.
Members of Congress experienced a surge in threats of violence after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, prompting lawmakers to plead with leaders for more funding for personal security. The number of threat investigations. decreased last year but US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in January that the rate was “still too high.”
frank thorp contributed.
