US Vice-President J.D. Vance’s Ohio home vandalised, police say
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US Vice-President J.D. Vance and his family had returned to Washington at the time that the home was vandalised.
PHOTO: AFP
Billy Witz, Kevin Williams and Ali Watkins
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CINCINNATI – Police officers arrested a man suspected of vandalising the Ohio home of Vice-President J.D. Vance early on Jan 5 while Mr Vance and his family were away, officials said.
The man, identified as William Defoor, 26, was charged with damaging government property, engaging in physical violence against a person or property in a restricted building or grounds, and assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers, prosecutors said. His arraignment is scheduled for Jan 6.
Defoor was arrested outside the home in Cincinnati, which is one of Mr Vance’s personal residences, shortly after midnight, according to a statement by the US Secret Service.
Officials said that Defoor, who was armed with a hammer, also tried to break the window of a federal law enforcement vehicle that was blocking the driveway to Mr Vance’s home and that he had refused law enforcement officers’ commands to drop his weapon. They said the damage to the home included broken windows.
“The residence was unoccupied at the time of the incident, and the vice president and his family were not in Ohio,” the Secret Service said in a statement. No injuries were reported, and it was unclear whether there was any motive.
The home is in the East Walnut Hills neighbourhood, a community with million-dollar homes along the Ohio River north-east of downtown.
Mr Vance said on social platform X that someone tried to break in by hammering the windows. “I’m grateful to the Secret Service and the Cincinnati police for responding quickly,” he said in the post.
The vice-president often stays with his family at the Naval Observatory in Washington, but he occasionally stays at the home in Cincinnati. Mr Vance returned there after monitoring the military action in Venezuela last week. But he and his family had already returned to Washington at the time that the home was vandalised.
The white, two-story, colonial-style house, which is set back behind an iron fence, sits on a busy thoroughfare.
Aside from the presence of Secret Service officials around the property, the neighbourhood was mostly a picture of normalcy as the post-holiday work week began. A green recycling container was at the end of Mr Vance’s driveway and a repair man was working on the window that was apparently damaged during the night.
The Cincinnati Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. NYTIMES
