JUNE 2, 2023:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to assaulting Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota in the elevator of her Washington apartment building in February. Court records show that Kendrid Khalil Hamlin pleaded guilty Thursday (June 1, 2023) to charges of assaulting a member of Congress and assaulting law enforcement officers. The indictment says Hamlin also assaulted two officers on the same day of Craig’s attack. Hamlin’s attorneys say he “accepted responsibility for his actions today with the earnest hope of moving towards rehabilitation and the mental health treatment he very much wants and needs.” A Craig spokesperson says her office has no immediate comment.
FEBRUARY 10, 2023:
WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia police said Thursday night (Feb. 9, 2023) that they had arrested a suspect in an assault on Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota.
Craig was assaulted in the elevator in her Washington apartment building around 7:10 a.m., police said, but the assailant fled when she defended herself.
Craig suffered bruises while escaping serious injury in the attack, which did not appear to be politically motivated, her chief of staff, Nick Coe, said in a statement.
The Metropolitan Police Department said it had arrested 26-year-old Kendrick Hamlin, of no fixed address, and charged him with simple assault.
The attack followed an assault on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in their San Francisco home in October by a man who told police his motive was political and that his intended target was the speaker.
Members of Congress have faced a sharp rise in threats since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. Capitol Police investigated nearly 10,000 threats to members last year, more than twice the number from four years earlier.
Craig won a third term in November in the suburban-to-rural 2nd District south of Minneapolis and St. Paul in one of the most expensive House races in the country, frustrating the GOP’s best hope of flipping a Minnesota seat in an election that gave Republicans a narrow House majority.
Coe said Craig is grateful for the quick response from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department and has asked for privacy.
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