Two people were wounded in a shooting on Sunday outside the house of Representative Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor of Latest York, the candidate said on Twitter.
The Suffolk County Police Department said that detectives were investigating the shooting, outside a house in Shirley on Long Island at 2:20 p.m. The conditions of the 2 people weren’t immediately clear.
In an announcement, Mr. Zeldin said that the 2 men who were shot were under his front porch and that he didn’t know them. The authorities also said there was no connection between the injured and the residents of the house.
Mr. Zeldin said that he and his wife, Diana, weren’t home on the time of the shooting and had just left the Bronx Columbus Day Parade within the Morris Park neighborhood. He said his 16-year-old daughters, Mikayla and Arianna, were in the home doing homework on the kitchen table after they heard gunshots and screaming.
“They ran upstairs, locked themselves in the toilet and immediately called 911,” he said. “They acted very swiftly and smartly every step of the best way and Diana and I are extremely pleased with them.”
Mr. Zeldin, a conservative congressman, has made public safety the centerpiece of his campaign, traveling the state to focus on violent crimes while promising to tighten the state’s bail laws and crack down on crime, if elected.
He is taken into account an underdog against Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, who had a snug lead in recent polls. Democrats outnumber Republicans by greater than two to at least one in Latest York, and the governor’s campaign has sought to focus on Mr. Zeldin’s opposition to abortion rights and his support for former President Donald J. Trump.
The shooting is the second time that violence has intersected with Mr. Zeldin’s campaign in recent months. In July, a person from Western Latest York was charged with assaulting a member of Congress after he physically confronted Mr. Zeldin onstage during a political event.
The person, who was identified as an Army veteran, was pointing a pointy keychain toward the congressman. He later said he had been drinking and didn’t know who Mr. Zeldin was. Mr. Zeldin placed the attack within the context of his anti-crime message.
“I’m as resolute as ever to do my part to make Latest York protected again,” he said on the time.
The campaign increased security around Mr. Zeldin after the July incident. He hit the identical note on Sunday, saying that his daughters were shaken by the shooting but otherwise unharmed.
“Like so many Latest Yorkers, crime has literally made its strategy to our front door,” he said.
Governor Hochul said on Twitter that she had been briefed on the shooting and was “relieved to listen to the Zeldin family is protected and grateful for law enforcement’s quick response.”
Grace Ashford contributed reporting.
