Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., was kidnapped at gunpoint in Philadelphia on Wednesday, as violence in major cities throughout the country continues to rise.
According to Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV, the attacker took Scanlon’s phone and handbag.
Scanlon was accosted by two Black guys in their 20s and 30s as she walked to her car, police said, and they demanded she hand over the keys. One of the suspects drove away in her blue 2017 Acura MDX, while the other drove away in a dark-colored SUV, which Scanlon turned over.
Scanlon represents the 5th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, which includes a portion of South Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Police Department has recorded 521 homicides so far in 2021, a 13% rise over 2020 and the city’s highest number of homicides since at least 2007. Shooting incidents have also grown by 4.4 percent, as has the number of people killed.
In the previous 24 hours, Scanlon isn’t the first top Democratic figure to be carjacked in a crime-ridden area. Kimberly Lightford, the Democratic state Senate Majority Leader in Illinois, and her husband were carjacked on Tuesday night in Broadview, Illinois, in the Chicago region, where crime has been on the rise.
Following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, both Scanlon and Lightford have become vocal champions of police reform.
We have seen too many lives taken and communities devastated by police brutality and racial profiling. Action is long overdue. @HouseDemocrats are fighting for REAL reform in our country’s police departments. #JusticeInPolicing pic.twitter.com/IS9n6LZXCg
— Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (@RepMGS) June 8, 2020
Scanlon is one of 125 co-sponsors of the Mental Health Justice Act, which aims to pair certain police officers with mental health professionals as first responders. The bill’s co-sponsors are all Democrats.
