Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar spoke out for the first time since three perpetrators carjacked him in Washington, D.C., the previous night.
Three armed men carjacked Cuellar by gunpoint outside of his residence in the Navy Yard neighborhood while he was parking at around 9:30 p.m. Monday. Cuellar was left unharmed as the three took off with his car, which law enforcement has since recovered, according to the representative’s chief of staff, Jacob Hochberg.
“I was just coming into my place,” Cuellar told reporters Tuesday. “Three guys came out of nowhere and they pointed guns at me. I do have a black belt, but I recognize when you got three guns, I looked at one with a gun, another with a gun [and] a third one behind me. So they said they wanted my car, I said ‘sure.’ You got to keep calm in those situations, and then they took off.”
“They recovered the car, they recovered everything,” Cuellar continued. “What really got me upset was they took my sushi, but anyways, that’s something else, and they did recover the sushi after all.”
Cuellar thanked the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department for their “good work” as they recovered all of his belongings. He said law enforcement tracked down his vehicle and returned everything to him in “less than two hours.” (RELATED: Democratic Rep Assaulted In Her Washington DC Apartment)
The Texas representative said the three alleged assailants were young and wore masks to cover up their faces. He brushed off the possibility he was targeted because he is a member of Congress.
“The message is very simple, you got to support law enforcement, and I’ve been doing that for a long time,” Cuellar said. “Three brothers are peace officers.”
The incident occurred about a mile away from the U.S. Capitol, Cuellar added, outside a building where some other members of Congress live.