Cuellar on worst part of carjacking: ‘They stole my sushi!’

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) suggested that the worst part about being the victim of an armed carjacking in Washington, D.C., was that the assailants stole his sushi. 

Cuellar, who appeared in good spirits on an MSNBC interview with Jose Diaz-Balart, said that he tried to remain calm as three young men came up behind him with guns as he was leaving his car to go into his Navy Yard apartment in southeast D.C. He said that he handed over his car keys to the “young punks with guns,” who then drove away without injuring him.

He noted that within a couple hours, his car and phone were returned.

“He had a gun pointed at me,” he said. “I looked to the to the other side. There was another one with a gun pointed at me. I looked behind me there was a third guy behind me. And I said, ‘sure.’ You got to stay calm under situations. I gave him the key and they took off and then within minutes both the Capitol Police and Metro Police were there.”

“And I like I said they were able to recover the car, my phone within a couple hours. I want to thank them. But what really got me upset is that they stole my sushi. That’s what got me upset,” he added.

He said that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reached out to him, saying that law enforcement is “doing everything” to find the people who did it. The Metropolitan Police Department said that the carjacking occurred shortly after 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and K Street SE.

Cuellar is the latest member of Congress to be attacked near their D.C. apartment building as the city is seeing increased levels of crime throughout the region. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was assaulted in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment building in February. 

The city recently passed its 200th homicide this year, marking a 38 percent increase compared to this time in 2022. There is also more than a 100 percent increase in motor vehicle theft in the city, with 5,409 total vehicle thefts occurring this year as of Tuesday.