Rep. Henry Cuellar unharmed after armed carjacking in DC
By Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona and Haley Talbot, CNN
(CNN) — Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar was carjacked in Washington, DC, Monday evening, the congressman said. He was physically unharmed.
The armed carjacking took place at the intersection of K Street and New Jersey Avenue in Southeast DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood, according to an alert from the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. Police are searching for three male suspects, the alert said.
Cuellar said his sushi dinner, phone, iPad and car were all stolen, but later recovered. The incident occurred around 9:32 p.m. Monday night while he was parking his car.
“They came out of nowhere and they pointed guns at me. 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. So they said they wanted my car, I said, ‘Sure.’ You got to keep calm under those situations and then they took off. They recovered the car, they recovered everything,” Cuellar told reporters on Tuesday.
“What really got me upset was they took my sushi, but anyway, that’s something else,” he said.
Cuellar said he does not believe he was targeted as a member of Congress or that he doesn’t believe the assailants knew who he was.
The safety of lawmakers in the district has been an increasing concern in recent years. In February, Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, suffering minor injuries. In the spring, Congress overrode police reforms passed by the city’s council over concerns that they were too soft on crime.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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