Background: Crime scene where Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas was carjacked on Oct. 2, 2023 in Washington, D.C. YouTube screengrab from ABC affiliate KVUE. Inset: Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was carjacked in Washington, D.C., on Monday night and according to the legislator, three people “swarmed” him and at least one aimed a gun at his head before fleeing in his car.
Cuellar was unharmed. Speaking to reporters, the Democratic lawmaker told CNN that the assailants wore all black and appeared “out of nowhere” as they started pointing firearms at him.
“I do have a black belt but I recognize when you got three, three guns, yeah, I looked at one with a gun another with a gun, no one behind me,” he said.
When they told him they wanted his car, a Toyota, he told them: “Sure.”
“You got to keep calm under those situations and then they took off,” Cuellar told reporters, noting that police had recovered his vehicle.
What really upset him, he joked, was that the men had taken off with his vehicle while it had his sushi dinner in it.
“But anyway, that’s something else,” he remarked.
There was also luggage in the vehicle that was later recovered.
A representative from the U.S. Capitol Police Department provided a statement to Law&Crime on Tuesday from U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger. Manger said the department has “a number of leads” and that investigators are “focused, determined and working around the clock” to locate the assailants.
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and FBI are on the case as well, according to the U.S. Capitol Police Department.
Read Related Also: Barroom blitz: Fight involving nearly 20 people ends in 7 arrests, security guard ‘brutally attacked’
“According to the victim’s statements, the suspects ‘swarmed [the victim’s] vehicle, pointed firearms in his face and demanded the keys to the car.’ Thankfully there were not any injuries,” U.S. Capitol Police said Tuesday.
Another witness told police the carjackers wore knit caps and ski masks. The witness said they appeared to be 5’10”, Black, and around the age of 16 years old “due to their build.”
Cuellar does not believe he was targeted because he is a congressman.
The carjacking took place in the Navy Yard neighborhood of the District of Columbia.
This is the second time a lawmaker has been assaulted in Washington this year.
Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted on Feb. 9 while in the elevator of her apartment building. She escaped mostly unscathed except for some bruises. Kendrid Hamlin, 26, approached Craig while she was in the lobby of her building and followed her into the elevator. He next asked to use the bathroom in her private residence and she refused.
That’s when, according to NBC, the man “became agitated” and grabbed her around her collarbone. The lawmaker escaped after throwing her hot coffee on him, she told police.
Hamlin pleaded guilty to a single count of assault on a congressperson and assaulting law enforcement officers on June 1. The assault on the officers occurred when they attempted to arrest him.
D.C. Police have reported an uptick in carjackings throughout 2023. The Post reported in July that the annual number of carjackings in Washington, D.C., hovered around 200 before the COVID-19 pandemic. But that number soared to over 1,000 by the end of 2022. In 2023, police reported roughly 750 carjackings since the start of the year.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
