Accused baseball bat attacker in congressional office claims insane – NBC4 Washington

A man accused of breaking into a Northern Virginia congressional office last year and beating a staffer and an intern with a baseball bat claims he was insane at the time of the attack, News4 first reported.

Xuan-Kha Tran Pham appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity following the attack at U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly's district office in Fairfax on May 15, 2023.

Prosecutors say Pham stalked a woman, threatened her with a metal bat and struck her car in a residential area, then went to Connolly's office. There, he repeatedly struck a congressional staffer in the head with the bat and punched an intern in the ribs, authorities say. It was the intern's first day on the job.

“While he was hitting me, he kept repeating, 'You're going to die,'” the employee previously testified.

In court on Monday, Pham repeated “not guilty by reason of insanity” four times as the judge asked him to enter his plea. He pleaded to two counts of willful injury, one count of assault and one count of criminal damage in connection with the attack in the neighborhood.

The judge accepted Pham's guilty plea and said two doctors who examined him concluded he was insane at the time of the attacks. Pham's defense attorney Dawn Butorac told News4 that Pham, 50, has suffered from severe mental illness since the 1990s and was not receiving adequate medication at the time of the attack.

“Unfortunately, he was suffering from delusions about government conspiracies and a number of other things and he had turned to various government agencies for help because he believed the government was going to lock him up and all kinds of other things,” Butorac said. “He's just very sick and this whole incident is a byproduct of his mental illness and that's why he's going to be in the hospital for the foreseeable future.”

“The healing process continues”

Connolly was not at the district office at the time of the attack. In a statement to News4 on Monday, he said “the healing process continues” and spoke out against “violent rhetoric.”

“It has been over a year since Mr. Pham entered my office to harm me and my co-workers. As the healing process continues, I remain grateful for the support of the community and inspired by the incredible courage and recovery of my co-workers,” Connolly said.

“Mr. Pham's history of mental illness is well documented and continues to this day. I pray that he continues to receive the institutional treatment he needs so that he does not harm others or himself. However, as a community, we must recognize the serious consequences of inflammatory and violent rhetoric expressed too often by too many people.

“Hate speech and calls for violence are never acceptable and must always be condemned. Failure to behave civilly and show respect for our differences will only lead to more incidents like those in May 2023.”

“A man stormed through the door”

Disturbing video shows a woman running and screaming as a man chases her with a metal bat. Pham's neighbors said he attacked her in her car around 10:35 a.m. on May 15, 2023, asked if she was white and smashed her windshield.

Minutes later, Pham appeared in Connolly's district office. At a hearing in November, an employee said she was training an intern on her first day when a man burst through the door.

“A man burst through the door, took a few steps toward me, raised a baseball bat, swung and hit me in the arm,” she testified.

The employee fell to the ground as the attacker repeatedly punched her and the intern screamed. He kept repeating that she was going to die, the employee said.

By chance, a postal worker came by and shouted at the attacker to leave her alone. She then managed to escape.

At about 10:50 a.m., police were called to the office and Sergeant James Lewis of the City of Fairfax arrived. He testified that he ordered Pham to drop the bat.

Two staffers of U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly were attacked with a metal baseball bat in his Virginia office Monday morning, Fairfax City Police said. Northern Virginia Bureau reporter Drew Wilder reports.

“I had my service weapon pointed at him. I tasered him and he dropped the bat,” Lewis said.

Police bodycam video shows Pham falling to the ground while several police officers handcuff him.

The employee said she was treated for a concussion and was still receiving occupational and physical therapy six months after the attack.

News4 sends breaking news alerts via email. Sign up here to receive breaking news alerts in your inbox.

Pham has been held primarily in a state mental hospital since his arrest. He will be evaluated for 45 days. He is due in court on November 1 to receive a status report.

There is also a federal case pending accusing Pham of assaulting a U.S. government official.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.