An employee at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has been arrested for throwing a Subway sandwich at a federal agent deployed to Washington DC as part of President Donald Trump’s vow to crackdown on crime.
Sean Charles Dunn, who had worked in the DOJ Criminal Division, was fired after video of the incident emerged. He is being charged with felony assault.
The presence of federal law enforcement agents, as well as the National Guard, has led to widespread anger in the mostly Democratic city.
Trump, a Republican, has said the deployment is necessary to fight crime and remove “drugged-out maniacs and homeless people”. Local police data shows violent crime is at a 30-year low in Washington DC.
According to charging documents, Mr Dunn allegedly threw a “submarine-style sandwich” at a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officer on Sunday.
In a video of the incident, which prosecutors cite in their charges, the suspect is heard calling the agents “fascists” and screaming profanities directed at them.
“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city,” he yells before crossing the road.
He later returns and is seen hurling the wrapped sandwich into the chest of a uniformed agent, who appears to be wearing a bulletproof vest.
He then flees on foot as officers give chase. According to prosecutors, Mr Dunn confessed after he was arrested on Wednesday, telling investigators: “I did it. I threw a sandwich.”
US Attorney General Pam Bondi, the highest-ranking law enforcement agent in the US and oversees the DOJ, posted about the incident on social media on Thursday.
“I just learned that this defendant worked at the Department of Justice — NO LONGER. Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged with a felony.”
Mr Dunn had been working as a trial attorney for the Office of International Affairs within the DOJ’s Criminal Division, according to CBS news, the BBC’s US partner.
US Attorney for Washington DC Jeanine Pirro said in a video announcing Mr Dunn’s arrest that he “thought it was funny. Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today, because we charged with him with a felony.”
“So there, stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else,” she continued.
The unusual nature of the incident led to several jokes online, including the comment “assault with a deli weapon” – a gag which received more than 1,500 upvotes on Reddit.
A local judge declined to press charges, before a federal judge permitted assault charges to be filed, CBS reports. Mr Dunn is currently free on bail and is facing up to eight years in prison.
Officials have not said whether the officer suffered any injuries in the incident.
About 100 people have been arrested since the agents and troops began arriving in the US capital on Monday.
Besides troops from the National Guard, there are agents deployed from the FBI, the US Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Secret Service.
The deployments have led to protests in the District, which as the seat of the federal government does not have the same rights as a US state.
In addition to deployments of those federal officers, Trump has placed the city’s police department under direct federal control, using provisions laid out in the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.
That act was instituted by former President Richard Nixon in 1973 to allow residents of Washington DC – where approximately 700,000 people live without official voting representation in Congress – to elect a city council and a mayor.
By BBC News
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