After a vehicle belonging to “Squad” member Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) was recently hit by gunfire, the lawmaker confirmed she was unharmed.
Bush wrote on Twitter on Thursday: “I’m touched by everyone who has reached out. Thankfully no one was harmed.”
The Democrat lawmaker then added that “any act of gun violence shakes your soul” and then claimed “that’s why our movement is working to invest in our communities, eradicate the root causes of gun violence, and keep everyone safe.”
Bush was not in the parked car when the gunfire struck it Saturday morning in the St. Louis area, her office told local media outlets. She is not believed to have been targeted during the incident, according to local reports.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and St. Louis County Police Department told
Fox News that neither agency had a record of the shooting incident.
The location of where the shots were fired is not clear.
In 2021, St. Louis saw a 25 percent decline in its homicide rate compared with 2020’s figures, police
data show (pdf). Last year, 196 murders were recorded, whereas in 2020, 263 homicides were reported, the data shows.
Despite the drop, St. Louis has still one of the highest homicide rates in the country, with
65 murders per 100,000 people in 2021. The United States’ homicide rate for 2020 was 7.8 per 100,000 people.
Bush has drawn criticism from Republicans for her support of the “defund the police” movement that erupted in 2020, while she also confirmed that she
hired private security after allegedly receiving death threats during her time in Congress. Filings with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings show her campaign spent more than $54,000 on security between April 15 and June 28 of last year.
In response to the criticism, Bush said her intention is not to remove funds from police departments but instead, she wants to redirect the money to social services programs.
Meanwhile, in late December, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) was carjacked at gunpoint in Philadelphia,
according to her office. A suspect, 19-year-old Josiah Brown of Delaware, was arrested in connection with the incident,
police said.
Around the same time, Illinois’ Democratic state Senate majority leader Sen. Kimberly Lightford and her husband were carjacked in Chicago.
Authorities told CBS Chicago in late December that the couple was approached by three masked individuals as Lightford and her husband were driving a Mercedes SUV. The carjackers fired shots during the incident,
said officials at the time.
The Epoch Times has contacted Bush’s office for comment.
