A man wielding a metal baseball bat entered the office of Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly in northern Virginia on Monday and attacked two members of his staff, police say.
The suspect — identified as Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, Va. — was taken into custody by officers who had to use a taser to subdue him.
According to officials, the incident began shortly before 11 a.m., when Pham entered Connolly’s district office in Fairfax and approached an intern who was in her first day on the job. The suspect asked to see Connolly, 73. The Congress member was at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and not in the office.
“She told him what he didn’t want to hear, which was I wasn’t there,” Connolly told CBS News. “He then proceeded to beat her with a bat.”
Other staffers intervened, and Pham struck a senior aide in the head.
“At that point, one of my fast-thinking staff aides said, ‘Oh, you want to see the congressman? Let me go get him for you,'” Connolly said. The aide then gathered other staffers and called police.
