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Joseph Simonson and Philip Caldwell (Free Beacon )
The man who police say attempted to murder a Senate Republican staffer with a knife in Washington, D.C., on Saturday was released from prison the day prior, court records show.
The Metropolitan Police Department announced on Monday that a man named Glynn P. Neal was arrested for stabbing a senior staffer from Sen. Rand Paul’s (R., Ky.) office, and charged with assault with the intent to kill. Court records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show the victim, whose name is being withheld, suffered from a punctured lung, a head wound that went through the skull causing hemorrhaging in the brain, a lacerated ear, and other puncture wounds throughout his body.
The 42-year-old Neal had been released from federal prison just a day earlier on Friday, Federal Bureau of Prisons records show. Neal in March 2011 was convicted on eight charges, including for pimping, felony threats, and obstruction of justice, court records show. The charges could have sent him to prison for 18 years, however, the judge sentenced him to a reduced 12 years, with five years of supervised release after serving his sentence.
In the 2010 case that sent Neal to prison, he acted as a pimp, forcing his girlfriend and her friend to prostitute themselves and give him the profits. Neal threatened to kill the women or “beat them bloody” if they didn’t follow his orders, according to a Department of Justice memo detailing his crimes.
The stabbing follows another high-profile assault that took place in February, when Democratic Rep. Angie Craig (Minn.) was attacked in her apartment building just blocks away from the Capitol. The suspect in that case had a long criminal background, and was, like Neal, in custody just a short time before his alleged assault on Craig.
According to an affidavit filed by a detective with the Metropolitan Police Department, Neal was residing with his sister the day of the attack. He allegedly jumped the victim from around the corner while he and a friend were walking down a popular street in northeast D.C. Neal told authorities after the attack that “a voice was telling him that someone was going to get him for all the things he done.”
Paul released a statement on Monday evening confirming that his staffer was “brutally attacked in broad daylight in Washington, D.C.”
“We are relieved to hear the suspect has been arrested,” the Kentucky senator said.
The Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. attorney’s office for D.C. did not respond to a request for comment.
