Man accused in baseball bat attack of congressional staffers now facing federal charges
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2023 (941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
FALLS CHURCH. Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia man charged with assaulting two congressional staffers in their Virginia office with a baseball bat is now facing federal charges as well.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia announced Wednesday that Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, has been charged in federal court in Alexandria with assaulting federal employees.
Pham was arrested Monday and already charged in state court with malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding after police say he struck two staffers for Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., with an aluminum bat.
An FBI affidavit accompanying the federal charges contained a few new details. According to the affidavit, Pham burst through the front door of the office and immediately struck Connolly’s outreach director in the head.
As Pham continued to strike the woman, an intern who was on her first day at the job tried to flee. Pham then struck her in the ribs, according to the affidavit. He then returned to hitting the outreach director, saying “I’m going to kill you” and “you’re going to die,” according to the affidavit.
The outreach director estimated that Pham struck her about eight times.
A witness to the attack said Pham was calling for “Gerry” and said he wanted to talk to Connolly, who was not at the office.
The two staffers were taken to the hospital and released later Monday.
According to the affidavit, Pham had called the district office three times in February; a staffer said Pham’s words were “gibberish about DNA and God.”
Pham’s father told The Washington Post that his son suffers from schizophrenia.
Last year, Pham was charged in Fairfax County with assaulting a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. The commonwealth attorney’s office said it agreed to drop the charges because Pham was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time of his arrest and he had complied with requirements to seek treatment.
Last year, Pham sued the Central Intelligence Agency in the same federal court where he is now charged criminally, claiming that the CIA had been torturing him “from the fourth dimension,” court records show.
Pham is also facing a hate crime charge in an attack on a woman just minutes before the congressional staffers were assaulted. Police say Pham chased a woman with a bat and struck her windshield, asking her if she was white.