POLICE CALLED 25 TIMES TO ATTACK SUSPECT’S ADDRESS
Judge orders mental health evaluation after attack with bat
Fairfax County police received 25 calls for service in less than two years to the house of a man who was charged with attacking two staffers of Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va., with a baseball bat earlier this week, according to newly released records.
The records, released in response to a Washington Post Freedom of Information request, do not detail precisely what each call was about, who made them or how Xuan Kha Tran Pham’s residence was connected. Fairfax County police did not answer a reporter’s questions Friday about whether the calls were about the suspect in particular, whether there were multiple calls stemming from a single incident or what police did in response.
The 25 calls spanned January 2022 to May 2023, not including one the day after Pham was arrested over the attack. A code indicating the nature of a call was redacted in 16 instances, which a county official said was done because the information was “personal and medical in nature.”
Pham, 49, faces a federal charge of assault on a federal employee, two state charges and aggravated malicious wounding and malicious wounding in connection with the assault on the Connolly staffers. Police allege he went to the congressman’s Fairfax City office, asked for the lawmaker, who wasn’t there, and then hit an outreach director and an intern with the bat.
Connolly has said there was no indication the attack was politically motivated. Hy Pham, Xuan Pham’s father, has said his son has schizophrenia and has dealt with mental illness since his late teens.
Chief Public Defender Dawn Butorac, whose office represents Pham, said Friday: “It’s clear that Mr. Pham is incredibly mentally ill, and the fact that the police were called for service that many times proves that.”
One of the calls appears to be connected to a Jan. 12, 2022, case, in which Pham was ultimately arrested and charged with four felonies after police said he assaulted an officer.
The records indicate police were called to the address that day for an officer in distress, and later, for a missing person. An incident report with a matching case number asserts that Pham screamed and ran toward a police officer’s cruiser, asking an officer to shoot him. A police report says after police told Pham they would be taking him to a mental health facility, Pham grew angry and resisted officers’ efforts to take him into custody, reaching for the gun of one of them.
Prosecutors dropped the case on Sept. 12, court records show. The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement that the charges “stemmed from a mental health incident” and were not prosecuted “as part of an agreement that ensured the individual was complying with mental health services.”
A judge ordered Friday that Pham undergo a mental competency evaluation to determine whether he is mentally able to stand trial. A hearing regarding the evaluation is scheduled for July 6, court records show.