Suspect in bat attack at Virginia congressman’s office refuses to show up for arraignment: report

A man accused of attacking two staffers with a metal baseball bat at a Virginia congressman’s district office on Monday refused to appear at his arraignment Tuesday, NBC News reports.

Xuan Kha Tran Pham, a 49-year-old Fairfax County resident, was arraigned on four charges (three felonies and one misdemeanor) in connection with the attack on Rep. Gerry Connolly’s district office.

Pham is facing one count of aggravated malicious wounding, one count of malicious wounding, and one count of destruction of property.

He was also charged with one misdemeanor count of a hate crime in connection with a comment he made to a woman minutes before the attack at Connolly's Fairfax office.

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Two staffers were hospitalized with injuries including an intern who was on her first day. Both had been released as of Tuesday.

One police officer suffered a minor injury that required medical treatment.

Pham also caused some property damage in the attack, breaking glass and shattering computers, Connolly’s chief of staff Jamie Smith told NBC News.

Connolly, who was not at the office at the time of the attack, told NBC News that his staffers spent Tuesday morning cleaning blood and glass at his office.

“It just seems to me my staff ... it just adds to the trauma that the morning after they’re cleaning up blood and glass from a rampage by this individual,” Connolly said. “I wish somehow that burden didn’t fall on them.”

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