Man suspected of attacking officer guarding Rand Paul outside RNC arrested

Rand and Kelley Paul describe 'terrifying' encounter with rage mob outside the White House

Angry protesters surrounded Sen. Rand Paul and his wife, Kelley, as they tried to return to their D.C. hotel after President Trump's White House speech to the Republican National Convention.

The man suspected of attacking a police officer who was guarding Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., last week has been arrested.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Wednesday that Brennen Sermon, 27, of Orlando, Fla., was arraigned on a charge of assaulting a law enforcement officer.

Around midnight, following the last night of the Republican National Convention, a DC police officer was holding a police line around Paul and his wife when, according to an affidavit, the defendant kicked his bicycle and fled. The suspect is accused of then punching the officer in the face, causing a cut that needed stitches.

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Paul tweeted after the altercation that he was “attacked by an angry mob of over 100, one block away from the White House.”

“The crowd multiplied fast. One of them yelled: ‘We’ve got Rand Paul trapped!’ First, there were a handful of people — then 30, then 60, then over 100 screaming and out-of-control lunatics,” Paul recounted in an op-ed for Fox News. “The mob continued shouting awful death threats. Curses. Shoving. One person in the mob violently slammed into a policeman just behind me."

Videos of the incident across social media show a crowd surrounding Paul and his wife as they try to get to their hotel.

They chanted, “Say her name,” and, “Breonna Taylor!”

Breonna Taylor, a resident of Louisville, Ken., was killed during a no-knock police raid on her home earlier this year.

Paul wrote and introduced the “Justice for Breonna Taylor Act” in June to prohibit no-knock warrants and require “federal law enforcement officers to provide notice of their authority and purpose before executing a warrant.” Any state or local law enforcement receiving funding from the Department of Justice would be required to do the same thing.

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“After talking with Breonna Taylor’s family, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s long past time to get rid of no-knock warrants,” Paul said after introducing the bill.

Sermon was released on his own recognizance. If convicted, he faces up to 180 days in prison.