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List of incidents of political violence in Washington, D.C.

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There have been numerous incidents of political violence in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, as well as in the greater Washington Metropolitan area.

19th century

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An 1816 illustration of the burning of Washington by British forces
Lithograph of Preston Brooks' 1856 attack on Sumner; the artist depicts the assailant bludgeoning Sumner.
  • May 22, 1856: Caning of Charles Sumner: Abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner (MA) was savagely beaten with a cane and nearly killed by pro-slavery Representative Preston Brooks (SC-04) on the floor of the U.S. Senate in retaliation for a speech criticizing slavery. It has been considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse" and the use of violence that eventually led to the American Civil War.[4]
  • February 5, 1858: During the 35th United States Congress, on February 5, 1858, Galusha A. Grow (PN) was physically attacked by Democrat Laurence M. Keitt (SC) in the House chambers, leading to a brawl between northerners and southerners. Keitt, offended by Grow's having stepped over to his side of the House chamber, dismissively demanded that Grow sit down, calling him a "black Republican puppy". Grow responded by telling Keitt that "No negro-driver shall crack his whip over me." Keitt became enraged and went for Grow's throat, shouting that he would "choke [him] for that". A large brawl involving approximately fifty representatives erupted on the House floor, ending only when a missed punch from Rep. Cadwallader Washburn (WI) upended the hairpiece of Rep. William Barksdale (MS). The embarrassed Barksdale accidentally replaced the wig backwards, causing both sides to erupt in spontaneous laughter.[5]
  • April 14, 1865: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died the following day at 7:22 a.m. in the Petersen House opposite the theater. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated, with his funeral and burial marking an extended period of national mourning. Occurring near the end of the American Civil War, the assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the U.S. government: the president, the vice president, and the secretary of state. After a dramatic initial escape, Booth was killed at the climax of a 12-day manhunt. His accomplices, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy.
  • June 14, 1866: A debate between Representative Josiah Grinnell (IA) and Representative Lovell Rousseau (KY) over a bill intended to increase the power of the Freedmen's Bureau devolves into both men insulting each other. Rousseau would insult the state of Iowa while Grinnell would insult the state of Kentucky alongside questioning Rousseau's military record. On June 14th Rosseau would approach Grinnell on the east portico of the US Capitol building and requested an apology. When Grinnell refused to do so he would be struck several times by Rousseau's cane. In response Rosseau would be censured by the House of Representatives.[6]
  • July 2, 1881: Assassination of James A. Garfield: President James A. Garfield was assassinated at 9:30 a.m. while he waited for a train at Washington's Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station on the National Mall (at the present location of the National Gallery of Art), less than four months after he took office. As the president was arriving at the train station, writer and lawyer Charles J. Guiteau shot him twice; one bullet grazed the president's shoulder, and the other pierced his back. Garfield lingered for eleven weeks before dying on September 19, 1881, at 10:35 p.m. of complications caused by infections, which were contracted by the doctors' relentless probing of his wound with unsterilized fingers and instruments. Guiteau was immediately arrested. After a highly publicized trial lasting from November 14, 1881, to January 25, 1882, he was found guilty and sentenced to death, which took place on June 30, 1882. Guiteau was assessed during his trial as mentally unbalanced, possibly due to the effects of syphilis on the brain. He claimed to have shot Garfield out of disappointment at being passed over for appointment as Ambassador to France.

20th century

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Damage done by the bomb at Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's house
Ronald Reagan waves just before he is shot. From left are Jerry Parr, Press Secretary James Brady, Reagan, aide Michael Deaver, an unidentified policeman, policeman Thomas Delahanty, and secret service agent Timothy J. McCarthy.
  • March 30, 1981: Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan: President Ronald Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. after a speaking engagement by Reagan at the Hilton Washington. Hinckley believed the attack would impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had become obsessed. White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded. All three survived, but Brady suffered brain damage and was permanently disabled. His death in 2014 was considered a homicide because it was ultimately caused by this injury.
  • December 7, 1981: A kidnapping of members of the Federal Reserve Board at the Federal Reserve headquarters building was attempted by James von Brunn, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and Holocaust denier. Von Brunn's motive was to raise awareness of alleged "treacherous and unconstitutional" acts by the Federal Reserve. He would later attack the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 10, 2009.[24]
  • December 8, 1982: Norman Mayer, an anti-nuclear weapons activist and eccentric, drove a white van up to the base of the Washington Monument. Mayer claimed to have 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of explosives in the van, which he said he would use to destroy the monument unless a national dialogue on the threat of nuclear weapons was seriously undertaken. He held off police for ten hours before he started to roll the van towards the White House, at which point U.S. Park Police snipers shot Mayer dead. No explosives were found in the van.[25]
  • April 26, 1983: A bomb exploded at the National War College at Fort McNair in SW Washington, shattering windows and cracking walls in the building and doing $100,000 worth of damage but no injuries.[26][27]
  • August 18, 1983: A bomb went off at the Washington Navy Yard's Computer Center, doing minor damage and causing no injuries. The "Armed Resistance Unit," a cover name for the militant leftist group May 19th Communist Movement, claimed credit for the attack.[27]
  • November 7, 1983: United States Senate bombing: The "Armed Resistance Unit," a cover name for the militant leftist group May 19th Communist Movement, exploded a bomb on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol's north wing, causing estimated damages of $250,000. The bombing was a response to the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
  • April 20, 1984: A bomb exploded at the Washington Navy Yard Officers Club. The "Armed Resistance Unit," a cover name for the militant leftist group May 19th Communist Movement, claimed credit for the attack.[27]
  • May 1991: 1991 Washington, D.C., riot
  • September 12, 1994: Frank Eugene Corder flew a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House South lawn, apparently trying to hit the White House. President Bill Clinton and the First Family were not home at the time. Corder died on impact and was the only casualty.[28]
  • October 29, 1994: Francisco Martin Duran used a rifle to fire at least 29 shots at the White House from a fence overlooking the north lawn, thinking that President Bill Clinton was among the men in dark suits standing on the lawn (Clinton was in the White House Residence watching a football game). Three tourists, Harry Rakosky, Ken Davis, and Robert Haines, tackled Duran before he could injure anyone. Duran was found to have a suicide note in his pocket, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.[29]
  • July 24, 1998: United States Capitol shooting: Russell Eugene Weston, Jr., a paranoid schizophrenic with a strong distrust of the Federal Government, opened fire at one of the U.S. Capitol's checkpoints and killed two Capitol police officers, one of whom had wounded Weston. Weston was not charged because of his mental condition and was sent to a Federal mental institution.

21st century

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  • February 7, 2001: Robert W. Pickett, an accountant who had been fired from the IRS thirteen years earlier, fired a number of shots from outside the White House; President George W. Bush was inside. Pickett was shot by a Secret Service officer and arrested: he was later found to have emotional problems and employment grievances, and sentenced in July 2001 to three years' imprisonment.[30]
  • September 11, 2001: United Airlines Flight 93, an airliner that was hijacked as part of the 9/11 attacks, was planned by the hijackers to crash into either the White House or the Capitol Building. The plane crashed in Pennsylvania after a passenger revolt.
  • September 18 – October 12, 2001: 2001 anthrax attacks: Several letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to two Democratic U.S. Senators, Tom Daschle (SD) and Patrick Leahy (VT). The Senators were not injured but 31 staff members were infected and two postal workers at the Brentwood postal sorting facility died from anthrax exposure.
  • June 10, 2009: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting: James von Brunn, a white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and Holocaust denier, walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and shot a guard, who later died. Von Brunn was critically wounded when security guards immediately returned fire. Von Brunn later died on January 6, 2010, while awaiting trial. Previously, he had attempted to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board (See: December 7, 1981, above).
  • November 11, 2011: White House shooting: Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez fired nine rifle shots at the White House. Two bullets struck the White House, one being stopped by ballistic glass in a window. No one was hurt in the incident. In the months before the shooting, Ortega-Hernandez began to believe that the U.S. government was controlling its citizens and needed to be stopped.
  • August 15, 2012: Floyd Lee Corkins, II, attacked the Family Research Council and shot a security guard before the guard subdued him.
  • May 30–31, 2020: During the nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, BLM protesters tore down barricades around the White House, set fires, threw projectiles, and forced President Trump to hide in a bunker. Over 150 federal officers were injured in the riots.[31][32][33][34]
  • November 14, 2020: Thousands of protesters rallied to support President Donald Trump's claims of widespread election fraud perpetrated during the 2020 United States presidential election, believing that the election fraud was the direct cause of his losing the election. Attendees included white nationalists and members of far-right groups such as the Proud Boys, as well as counter-protestors from various far-left organizations. After nightfall, violence broke out between the attendees and counter-protesters. The latter began stealing MAGA hats and flags and proceeded to light them on fire. The chaos culminated at 8:00 p.m. when violence broke out five blocks east of the White House. The opposing groups charged each other, brawling for several minutes before police intervened. At least 10 were arrested and two officers were injured; one man was stabbed.[35]
  • December 12, 2020: Supporters of President Trump hosted a "Stop the Steal" rally at the Freedom Plaza, drawing 10,000–15,000 attendees. Nearby, about 200 members of the Proud Boys, dressed in combat fatigues and ballistic vests, carrying helmets, and reportedly using white nationalist signals, clashed with reported members of antifa.[36] In fights between the two groups, 4 people were stabbed and at least 23 were arrested.[37] Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio removed and burned a Black Lives Matter sign at Asbury United Methodist Church, one of Washington, D.C.'s oldest Black houses of worship. Tarrio was arrested on January 4, 2021, upon entering Miami on additional gun charges.[38]
Police release tear gas outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021

Washington metropolitan area

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Yosef Alon
Refer to caption
Debris from American Airlines Flight 77 scattered near the Pentagon
  • October 2 – 24, 2002: D.C. sniper attacks: John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo coordinated a series of shootings in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed and three were critically wounded. The duo's crime spree began earlier in 2002 with robberies across the U.S., in which they killed seven people and wounded seven others. They were apprehended by police on October 24. Muhammad was sentenced to death and Malvo, a juvenile, was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without parole. At the 2006 trial of Muhammad, Malvo testified that the aim of the killing spree was to kidnap children for the purpose of extorting money from the government.
  • March 1, 2007: Paul Joyal, a security analyst and critic of the administration of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was shot and wounded in front of his Adelphi, Maryland, home. The shooting occurred four days after Joyal told Dateline NBC that the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko served as a warning to all critics of the Putin government. There was speculation that the shooting may have been in retaliation for the interview. The case is still unsolved.[47]
  • March 4, 2010: Pentagon shooting: John Patrick Bedell shot and wounded two Pentagon police officers at a security checkpoint in the Pentagon station of the Washington Metro rapid transit system in Arlington County, Virginia. The officers returned fire, striking him in the head. He died later from his injuries.
  • September 1, 2010: James Lee entered the Discovery Channel headquarters building in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, carrying a gun and explosives. Taking hostages, he held off police for several hours before he was shot and killed. Mr. Lee had issues with the Discovery Channel about their broadcasts dealing with the environment.[48]
  • June 14, 2017: Congressional baseball shooting: During a practice session for the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity in Alexandria, Virginia, James Hodgkinson shot U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and three others. A ten-minute shootout took place between Hodgkinson and officers from the Capitol and Alexandria Police before they fatally shot Hodgkinson, who died from his wounds later that day at the George Washington University Hospital. The Virginia Attorney General concluded that Hodgkinson, "fueled by rage against Republican legislators, decided to commit an act of terrorism."[49]
  • May 2, 2021: A man, whose name has not yet been released, attempted to enter the campus of the Langley, Virginia CIA facility after multiple prior attempts. The man, who was, by some reports, mentally ill, was stopped by armed guards, and was ordered to leave his car. He refused, and a standoff was initiated. FBI officers arrived, but a couple hours later, he exited his vehicle and claimed he had a gun, before moving erratically towards them. He was then shot by one of the FBI agents, and died the next day. The FBI is investigating the incident in order to figure out the motive of the man. The FBI later reported that, despite the man's repeated claims, he was not in fact armed.[50][51]

See also

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References

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  2. ^ Clarke, James W. (2012). Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. pp. 236–239. ISBN 978-1-4128-4590-8. OCLC 743040369. OL 25243994M.
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  51. ^ Fuchs, Hailey (May 4, 2021). "An armed man was wounded in an exchange with an F.B.I. agent outside the C.I.A.'s headquarters in Virginia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 4, 2021.