Phillip Todd, a Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky staffer, was stabbed in March. (Crime scene screengrab from Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate WUSA9; Todd photo screengrab from Fox News)
A newly released video shows the stabbing of a staffer working for Republican Sen. Rand Paul, on a street in Washington, D.C., by a convicted felon released from a federal prison a day earlier in what police called a random attack.
The security video shows the attack on 26-year-old Phillip Todd on H Street NE on March 25 after he left a Mexican restaurant with his friend, who was not hurt.
In the video, Todd and the friend can be seen walking when a man wearing a hoodie attacks Todd, who is knocked to the ground and repeatedly stabbed. Todd’s friend pushes the attacker away, and he and Todd run away as the assailant walks off.
Todd suffered a cut to the left ear, a puncture wound to the left side of his head, which penetrated the skull, a deep stab wound to the lower left torso that punctured his left lung and a minor puncture wound to the left chest, court documents said.
In a statement, his parents Chuck and Helen Todd credited their son’s friend for saving his life.
“He was randomly and brutally attacked by a person armed with a knife, who, according to the police report, attempted to kill him,” the statement said. “The intervention of our son’s friend helped prevent the wounds from being fatal.”
Todd told a detective at the hospital that he did not know the attacker and had no idea why he attacked him. Todd said he did not demand anything or say anything before the attack, court documents obtained by Law&Crime said.
He told the detective he could not describe the assailant but recalled seeing a knife in his right hand.
The senator spoke out shortly after the horrific attack.
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“We are praying for his recovery. He didn’t know the attacker. The attacker was out of jail for 24 hours,” Paul told Fox News after the attack. “First day out of prison, tries to kill somebody.”
Glynn Neal, 42, was arrested and charged with assault with intent to kill while armed after police linked him through a cellphone left at the scene, court documents said.
He waived his Miranda rights and was questioned by police about the day of the attack.
When a detective asked him what he did that day, he replied, “A voice was telling him that someone was going to get him for all the things he done. So he [Defendant Neal] was waiting right there to get the someone,” court documents said he told the investigator. The interview ended shortly after when Neal asked for a lawyer.
Neal is set to appear in court on Sept. 8 for a mental observation hearing, the online docket shows.
His defense attorney did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request for comment.
In 2011, Neal was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for compelling two North Carolina women to engage in prostitution — acting as a pimp — through threats, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced in the news release.
Neal threatened to kill both women or “beat them bloody” if they didn’t follow his rules, prosecutors said. He was convicted of pandering, procuring, compelling a person to live a life of prostitution against her will, felony threats, and obstruction of justice. A judge also ordered that he be placed on five years of supervised release after serving his prison term.
The Federal Board of Prisons confirmed in a statement to Law&Crime that Neal was released from custody on March 24 with credit for time served through the prison’s “Good Conduct Time” program.
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