Virginian arraigned in baseball bat attack

Suspect mentally ill, his father testifies

Fairfax City Police spokesman Lisa Gardner prepares to brief reporters outside the office building in Fairfax, Va., where two staffers for U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., were attacked with a man wielding a baseball bat Monday morning, May 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat)
Fairfax City Police spokesman Lisa Gardner prepares to brief reporters outside the office building in Fairfax, Va., where two staffers for U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., were attacked with a man wielding a baseball bat Monday morning, May 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat)


FAIRFAX, Va. -- A man with untreated schizophrenia, according to his father, was arraigned Tuesday on charges involving baseball-bat attacks on three women, including two staff members for U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.

Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax heard the charges by video from the Fairfax County jail. A judge ordered him held without bail pending a preliminary hearing in July.


The four counts include aggravated wounding and malicious aggravated wounding in the attack at Connolly's district office in Fairfax, and counts of felony destroying property and misdemeanor hate crime for an episode less than an hour earlier, when police say he hit a car windshield with the bat and chased a woman after asking if she was white.

U.S. Capitol Police and Fairfax City Police said they are jointly investigating the case and the suspect's motivations aren't clear.

Pham's father, Hy Pham, told The Washington Post his son was diagnosed with schizophrenia and has dealt with mental illness since his late teens. He also said he's been trying without success to arrange mental health care for his son. The father could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press.

The veteran Democratic congressman, who wasn't in the office at the time, said in an interview an intern working her first day on the job was struck in her side and an outreach director was hit on the head. Both were released after hospital treatment.

"It does underscore for all of us the vulnerability potentially of our district offices because we don't have the level of security we have here on Capitol Hill," said Connolly, who's in his eighth term representing his district in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

One Fairfax police officer involved in detaining Pham Monday was also treated for a minor injury, police spokesperson Sgt. Lisa Gardner said.

Since the Jan. 6, 2021, on the Capitol, threats to lawmakers and their families have increased sharply. Capitol Police investigated around 7,500 cases of potential threats against members of Congress in 2022.

Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking and Sarah Rankin of The Associated Press.


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