A security camera captured the staffer for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) casually strolling down D.C.’s H Street NE with a friend on a sunny afternoon in March, having just left a restaurant. As the two near the edge of the frame, the video shows a man knocking the staffer onto the sidewalk — and stabbing him repeatedly.
“What the f--- ” someone can be heard saying.
The newly released footage shows for the first time the brazen March 25 attack, which authorities have described as a random act of violence. It is brief — the encounter lasts less than a minute — but harrowing.
The staffer’s friend is seen trying to pull the attacker off, and then someone appears to yell “go away, go away.” The assailant — who is wearing a dark-colored, hooded jacket — stumbles away out of view of the camera.
The security video was played in D.C. Superior Court last month at the preliminary hearing for Glynn Neal, the 42-year-old man charged with assault with intent to kill in the attack.
Advertisement
Prosecutors initially declined to release the footage, though they eventually did so after The Washington Post filed a motion asking D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony C. Epstein to intervene.
The judge issued an order noting that The Post’s motion would become unnecessary if the prosecutors, who had possession of the video, released it — which they did hours later. Neal’s attorneys had objected, arguing that releasing the video could prejudice their client’s efforts in obtaining an impartial jury. They noted at the hearing, though, that the attacker’s face was not identifiable.
The victim in the attack, Phillip Todd, was stabbed multiple times in his head and chest, suffering a brain bleed and punctured lung that required several surgeries, prosecutors said. His friend, Christopher Barnard, was not wounded.
Neal was arrested hours later, after authorities found his cellphone next to the victim’s bloody phone and jacket on the sidewalk where the attack occurred, according to detectives. When Neal was arrested, according to court charging documents, he told detectives that “a voice was telling him that someone was going to get him for all the things he done.”
Advertisement
At the July hearing, prosecutors said the attack occurred a day after Neal was released from prison. He had been convicted in 2011 for obstruction of justice, threats to kidnap or injure a person, and forcing a person into prostitution.
At a follow-up hearing, Neal was deemed temporarily incompetent to stand trial and was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluations. His next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLGkecydZK%2BZX2d9c3%2BOaW9oaGhkw6qwxKhkq5memXqxrdSlZKyskZuzpr6MmqutmZOgfA%3D%3D