In an interview with TPM, a Richmond Police Department spokesman said the bullet that penetrated a window in a building that includes a campaign office of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) was “an act of random gunfire.”
“What we were describing yesterday in fact describes an act of random gunfire,” said Public Information Manager Gene Lepley.
Cantor held a nationally televised press conference yesterday in which he said, “Just recently, I have been directly threatened. A bullet was shot through the window of my campaign office in Richmond this week.” He said he has been targeted not only because he is a member of Congress, but also because he is Jewish.
But a police statement on the incident, which occurred early Tuesday morning, suggested that someone had fired a bullet up into the air and it went through the window of the building on the way back down. While it went through a window, it did not penetrate the blinds, according to the police.
A Cantor spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.
In his press conference yesterday — held amid multiple reports of threats and acts of vandalism against Democrats nationwide — Cantor accused Dems of “dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon.” Here’s the video of the conference:
“Any suggestion that a leader in this body would incite threats or acts against other members is akin to saying that I would endanger myself, my wife, or my children. Just recently I have been directly threatened. A bullet was shot through the window of my campaign office in Richmond this week, and I have recieved threatening emails,” Cantor said.
He declined to take questions after the press conference.
The story apparently first broke as an “exclusive” on the Web site of Fox News. The Fox piece began this way:
FOX has learned that the Richmond, VA campaign office of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) was shot at Monday.
Cantor, is the highest-elected Jewish official in the country and the only Jewish Republican in the House.
Here’s a screngrab from the network’s coverage of the incident yesterday:
