Representative Angie Craig escaped an attack Thursday morning by tossing hot coffee at a man who punched her in an elevator of her Washington apartment building, police said.
(Bloomberg) — Representative Angie Craig escaped an attack Thursday morning by tossing hot coffee at a man who punched her in an elevator of her Washington apartment building, police said.
Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, “suffered bruising and is otherwise physically O.K.” after the assault that occurred shortly after 7:10 a.m., not far from the Capitol, the police added.
On Thursday night, the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department announced an arrest in the case. Kendrick Hamlin, 26, who also goes by Hamlin Khalil Hamlin was charged with simple assault, the police said, adding that he had “no fixed address.”
There is no evidence the incident is politically motivated, according to her office. Craig, 50, who is serving in her third House term, later attended floor votes.
The episode occurred after Capitol Police last month said threats against lawmakers decreased in 2022. Still, one of the most prominent cases of lawmaker-directed violence occurred last October, when an intruder broke into then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi.
Earlier, a police incident report said that the assailant was spotted by Craig in the lobby area of her apartment house “acting erratic as if he was under the influence on an unknown substance.”
Craig told investigators that at some point she said “good morning” to the man, and then she entered the elevator to go to her apartment. But the man followed her into the elevator “and began to randomly do push ups.”
The man then “with a closed fist punched her on the chin area of her face, and later grabbed her neck,” according to the report. That’s when Craig “defended herself by tossing her hot coffee” at the man and escaped. She called the police and the assailant fled, her office said.
(Updates with arrest, in third paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.