US congressman held up at gunpoint by Washington carjackers
The US congressman Henry Cuellar was robbed of his car at gunpoint on Monday evening in Washington, but he was not physically harmed, according to his office.
A statement from Cuellar’s chief of staff said the 68-year-old Texas Democrat was parking his car when three armed assailants approached him and stole the vehicle, his phone, his computer tablet and his sushi dinner.
“Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement,” said the statement from Jacob Hochberg.
Hochberg said officers later recovered Cuellar’s vehicle. Cuellar on Tuesday said police also retrieved the rest of his stolen belongings.
“They recovered everything,” Cuellar said, according to the US politics outlet Punchbowl News. “What really got me upset was they took my sushi.”
An alert from Washington’s homeland security and emergency management agency showed the carjacking took place in the city’s Navy Yard neighborhood, about a mile from the US Capitol. The neighborhood has a reputation of being generally safe, and one of its most recognizable landmarks is the home stadium of the city’s Major League Baseball team, the Nationals.
Police did not immediately identify any suspects in the case, announce any arrests or discuss a possible motive for the attack.
The incident occurred nearly four months after the Washington Post reported that the number of carjackings in and around the nation’s capital had surged in recent years. Statistics from police in Washington showed that there had been about 750 carjackings in the city so far this year, with about threefourths of those occurring at gunpoint.
Other major US cities have also reported elevated numbers of carjackings.
Cuellar’s carjacking was at least the second time a member of Congress had been assaulted in Washington this year.
Angie Craig, a Democrat from Minnesota, was accosted in her apartment building elevator on the morning of 9 February. Craig, who in 2018 became the first openly gay person elected to Congress from Minnesota, poured hot coffee over her attacker to deter him.
Police arrested a man named Kendrid Khalil Hamlin later that day. He pleaded guilty in June to charges of assaulting a member of Congress as well as police officers who had arrested him.
Authorities said there was no evidence Craig’s assault was motivated by her political work. The congresswoman suffered bruises because of the attack at Hamlin’s hands, but she did not have any more serious injuries.
Cuellar, a centrist Democrat, has represented Texas in Congress since 2005. His district runs along the state’s border with Mexico while also including the cities of Laredo and San Antonio.