A man with a metal baseball bat walked into U.S. Representative Gerald E. Connolly’s office in Fairfax, asked for the Democrat, then hit two members of his staff in the upper body with the bat, police said. Democratic U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly said that a man with a baseball bat walked into his office in Fairfax on Monday, asked for him, then assaulted two members of his staff.

It was the latest attack amid a surge in violence against lawmakers and their families.

The Fairfax City Police Department said in a tweet that a suspect was in custody and the victims were being treated for injuries that are not life-threatening.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Connolly said the man entered his county office on Monday morning and asked about him before committing acts of violence against two staff members.

The thought of anyone taking advantage of my staff’s reach to commit an act of violence is unconscionable and devastating, the lawmaker said.

Fairfax police spokesman Sergeant Lisa Gardner said police received a call about the attack at about 10:50 a.m. Connolly was out of the office, she said.

Gardner said some personnel hid during the attack.

Officers were at the office within five minutes and located the suspect, Gardner said. He was taken into custody quickly and without further incident, she said.

connolly

serving his eighth term in Congress,

represents Virginia’s 11th congressional district in the Washington suburbs and is serving its eighth term. He told CNN his office suffered damage, including broken windows.

Other Virginia elected officials were quick to condemn the violence.

US Senator Mark

R

Warner (D-Va.) retweeted Connolly’s statement, calling the attack an extremely disturbing development.

Intimidation and violence, especially against public officials, has no place in our society, he said.

The coward who did this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, Virginia Atty tweeted. General Jason Miyares, a Republican.

Since the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, threats to lawmakers and their families have increased dramatically. The U.S. Capitol Police investigated approximately 7,500 cases of possible threats against members of Congress in 2022. The year before, they investigated about 10,000 threats against members, more than twice as many as four years earlier.

In October, a man broke into then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and demanded to speak to her, before hitting her husband, Paul, on the head with a hammer.

In July, a man attacked U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican running for governor of New York, as he spoke at a campaign event and told Zeldin, “You’re done.” Zeldin wrestled the man to the ground and escaped with only a minor scratch.