NEW YORK (AP) — Recent York congressman and Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin says his family is secure after two strangers were shot outside his Long Island home on Sunday.
Zeldin said in an announcement that he doesn’t know the identities of the 2 individuals who were shot but that they were found under his porch and within the bushes in front of his home in Shirley, Recent York. The congressman and his wife weren’t at home on the time of the shooting but their teenage daughters were in the house and heard gunshots and screaming, he said within the statement released by his office.
Zeldin said his 16-year-old daughters locked themselves in a toilet and called 911. The family is shaken but OK, he said. Zeldin and his wife were getting back from a parade within the Bronx when the shooting occurred.
He said law enforcement officials were at his home investigating Sunday evening and were looking over the house’s security cameras. The 2 individuals who were shot were taken to local hospitals, he said.
Thanks to all who reached out along with your concern regarding the two people shot this afternoon outside my home. Mikayla and Arianna were on the kitchen table doing homework. One among the bullets landed just 30 feet from them. They acted very swiftly and smartly in response. pic.twitter.com/PMw3u5ic17
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) October 9, 2022
Zeldin planned to carry a news conference outside his home Sunday night to deal with the shooting.
The Suffolk County Police Department issued a transient statement saying it was investigating the shooting, which appeared to don’t have any connection to Zeldin’s family. Police had no information to release about who fired the shots or who first found the 2 people shot, a spokeswoman said.
Zeldin, who’s running against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, has made rising crime rates and violent crime a spotlight of his campaign. He has called for the state’s bail laws to be toughened, amongst other measures.
“Like so many Recent Yorkers, crime has literally made its technique to our front door,” Zeldin said Sunday.
He said later in a post on Twitter that his daughters were on the kitchen table when the shooting occurred and that certainly one of the bullets was found 30 feet away from them.
It’s the second scare he’s had in several months. In July, he was assaulted while campaigning in upstate Recent York when a person approached him onstage and thrust a pointy object near his head and neck. He was unhurt and the person was arrested.
Hochul said in an announcement posted on Twitter that she had been briefed on the shooting.
“As we await more details, I’m relieved to listen to the Zeldin family is secure and grateful for law enforcement’s quick response,” the governor said.
