Authorities are investigating a shooting last month at the home of former Green Beret and Republican candidate for Congress Pat Harrigan’s parents.
According to WBT News, the FBI is now involved in the investigation.
Harrigan’s campaign manager told The Carolina Journal that a suspect fired into the home in Hickory, North Carolina where Harrigan’s 3 and 5-year-old daughters often spend the night just a few feet away from where the shot entered the house.
Neither Harrigan nor the children were in the house at the time of the shooting and according to the Daily Mail, have since been relocated out of state. As of Thursday, there have been no arrests.
Harrigan is running against Democrat state Senator Jeff Jackson in the state’s 14th congressional district and said in a statement issued Thursday that his opponent’s politics have led to “rising inflation, economic ruin, & rampant crime, including political violence.
“My mission is a better economy, less inflation & safe streets. A bullet & death threats aren’t enough to knock this Green Beret off that mission.”
According to Fox News, following the statement, Jackson’s campaign yanked a political ad from local stations which featured Harrigan’s own house and not the home of his parents which criticized his gun manufacturing business, as well as his ownership of a lakeside home and showed a man on a jet ski telling viewers that Harrigan ‘made a fortune’ off tragedies such as the Sandy Hook school shooting. The spot was released on the day of the shooting.
Jackson campaign spokesperson Tommy Cromie said in a statement to WCCB-TV, “We fully support law enforcement as they investigate this incident and believe any wrongdoing should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We at Team Jackson pulled our ad in an abundance of caution and concern, but to be clear, the home involved in the incident has never been featured in any of our advertising.”
Harrigan’s campaign told Fox News that he has started wearing a bulletproof vest to campaign events because the race has gotten so heated and he has received death threats.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, issued a bulletin on Friday warning that political candidates, election officials, and the public faced a heightened risk of violence.
