At least one gunshot was fired last month into the North Carolina home of a US House candidate’s parents, injuring no one, according to police and the candidate, who referenced the incident on Twitter Thursday.
The gunfire happened at the home of the parents of Pat Harrigan, a Republican and owner of a firearm manufacturing company running for North Carolina’s newly drawn 14th District seat against state Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat.
On October 18, it was discovered that a gunshot had been fired into a Harrigan family home in Hickory, North Carolina, according to a Hickory police report. The shooting, which damaged a laundry room window, was reported to police the next morning, the report says.
The home belongs to Harrigan’s parents, and Harrigan’s children were inside at the time, according to a Carolina Journal report that Harrigan linked to in a tweet Thursday.
The Hickory police report reveals little else, and mentions nothing about a motive or whether investigators have identified a suspect. Hickory police have declined to comment further.
Though police have not mentioned a motive, Harrigan’s tweet appears to refer to the gunfire as “political violence.”
In his tweet linking to the Carolina Journal report about the gunshot, Harrigan wrote that his opponent’s politics leads to “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,” the US Army Special Forces veteran’s tweet reads.
CNN’s emails and calls seeking comment from his representatives Thursday and Friday went unanswered.
A representative for Jackson pointed CNN to several Twitter posts in which Jackson addressed the issue Friday.
“Yesterday I learned about an event that happened three weeks ago. It appears that someone – who has yet to be identified – fired a shot into the home of my opponent’s parents,” one of Jackson’s posts reads. “It was absolutely an act of violence and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
When asked whether the FBI was investigating the gunshot, the FBI’s Charlotte office said the bureau cannot confirm or deny the existence of investigations.
Reports about the shot come amid a taut US political environment ahead of Tuesday’s general election – a tension exacerbated by last week’s attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. In that attack, a man is accused of breaking into the couple’s San Francisco home October 28 and assaulting Paul Pelosi, leaving him with injuries that include a skull fracture.
Also in recent days, a Chicago man was accused of making violent threats against the Republican candidate for Illinois governor.