1 of 2 | William DeFoor, 26, was charged Monday with vandalizing the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance. Photo courtesy Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office/Website
Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a 26-year-old hammer-wielding man accused of vandalizing the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance overnight.
According to a statement from the Justice Department, U.S. Secret Service agents arrested William DeFoor, 26, after midnight Tuesday.
Prosecutors accused DeFoor of entering Vance’s residential property via the driveway, where he allegedly attempted to break the driver’s side window of an unmarked federal law enforcement vehicle with a hammer.
DeFoor ignored law enforcement demands to drop the hammer, which he is accused of then using to break the front windows of the residence.
He was apprehended by Secret Service agents and Cincinnati police officers while attempting to flee the scene.
The damage incurred in the incident is valued at more than $28,000, according to the Justice Department.
Federal prosecutors have charged DeFoor with damaging government property, engaging in physical violence against any person or property in a restricted building or grounds and assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.
If convicted, DeFoor faces up to 10 years in prison for damaging government property and engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds and up to 20 years for assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.
“I appreciate everyone’s well wishes about the attack at our home. As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows,” Vance said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the secret service and the Cincinnati police for responding quickly.”
Since being elected vice president, Vance and his family have resided in the vice president’s mansion on the premises of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.
The family was on a visit to Ohio during the weekend, but had returned to Washington, D.C., before the attack occurred.
Vance purchased the home for $1.4 million in 2018.
The incident comes amid a rise in politically motivated violence targeting officials and members of the public, including assassinations, assassination attempts, kidnapping plots and insurrection.
In September, conservative activist and provocateur Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking on a university campus in Utah.
In June, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed at their home.
President Donald Trump was also the target of an assassination attempt in July 2024.
Supporters of Trump also stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order reclassifying marijuana from a schedule I to a schedule III controlled substance in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
