Man accused of forcing US congressman off road turns himself in
A man who allegedly threatened a US congressman with his vehicle in Ohio has turned himself in to the authorities, police have said.The driver was identified by the Rocky River Police Department on Friday as 36-year-old Feras Hamdan. He has pleaded not guilty to charges in relation the incident.In a video shared on social media, Max Miller, a Republican house representative, said a man honked his horn and forced him "off the road" in an attempt to get his attention. He alleged the man tried to show him a Palestinian flag, said "death to Israel" and that "he wanted to kill me and my family".
Police said they put out a warrant for Mr Hamdan's arrest after the congressman filed a criminal complaint. They said Mr Hamdan turned himself shortly after. The incident, which occurred in Rocky River, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, is now under investigation by state and federal authorities, including the US Capitol Police. Mr Hamdan, who is reported to be a doctor in Ohio with a private practice, faces charges of aggravated menacing and ethnic intimidation. He appeared in court on Friday, where his bond was set at $500,000 (£371,500) by Rocky River Municipal Court Judge Joseph Burke. He was ordered to surrender his passport and is due back in court on 8 July. On Thursday afternoon, Miller posted a video on X describing the alleged incident, calling the driver "unhinged". "The deranged hatred in this country has grown out of control," he wrote in the post. Miller added that "as a Marine, a proud Jewish American and a staunch defender of Israel, I will not hide in the face of this blatant antisemitic violence".The incident comes at the heels of a fatal attack on two Democratic state politicians in Minnesota and their spouses, an incident that has raised the alarm on political violence in the US. State lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed in their homes on Saturday in what has been described as a "politically motivated assassination." Another lawmaker, State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot but survived.Police have arrested Vance Luther Boelter in connection to the Minnesota attacks, whom investigators say had a list of 70 "targets" that included names of other Democratic politicians.President Donald Trump has also been the target of political violence, with two assassination attempts against him in 2024.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
30 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Was this divorced American diva the original Meghan Markle? The REAL story of the most divisive person to ever marry into the royal family...
An American divorcee. A dazzling wardrobe. A royal romance that ends in exile. Denied the use of her HRH title, accused of corrupting a prince, cast as a threat to the very survival of the British monarchy and relentlessly vilified by the press. No, not Meghan Markle - but you'd be forgiven for thinking so.
Times
35 minutes ago
- Times
Mahmoud Khalil, pro-Palestinian activist, released after 104 days
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist detained by the Trump administration over his ties to student protests, has been released from immigration detention after 104 days. The former Columbia University student became a symbol of the president's clampdown on campus demonstrations when he was arrested and threatened with deportation. On Friday a federal judge ruled Khalil, a green card holder married to an American, must be released on bail. He walked free from a detention centre in Louisiana and said he wanted to hug his wife and newborn son. 'Justice prevailed, but it's very long overdue,' Khalil said while wearing a keffiyeh, a black and white headscarf which has become a symbol of solidarity with Palestine. 'This shouldn't have taken three months.' He is expected to travel to New York to reunite with his family. Khalil was detained outside his apartment in New York in March over his ties to the student protests and encampments at Columbia that later spread to colleges across the nation. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, claimed that he should be deported and that his participation in 'antisemitic protests' posed a national security threat. Khalil and his supporters maintain he is innocent and that he took part in legitimate protests. He missed the birth of his son while detained. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be 'highly, highly unusual' for the government to continue detaining a legal US resident who was not a flight risk and who had not been accused of violence. 'Petitioner is not a flight risk, and the evidence presented is that he is not a danger to the community,' he said. 'Period, full stop.' After leaving detention Khalil condemned the White House's immigration policies. 'The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanise everyone here,' he said of the immigrants still behind bars. 'Whether you are a US citizen, an immigrant or just a person on this land, doesn't mean that you are less of a human.' Under the terms of his release Khalil had to surrender his passport and cannot travel internationally. He can however travel within the country including to New York and Michigan to visit family, New Jersey and Louisiana for court appearances and Washington to lobby Congress.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Middle East situation ‘perilous', says Lammy amid calls for more talks
The situation in the Middle East is 'perilous', the Foreign Secretary said as he urged Iran to negotiate with the US. David Lammy flew from Washington to Geneva on Friday to meet Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi alongside his French and German counterparts as the UK continued to press for a diplomatic solution to the Middle East crisis. The talks followed US President Donald Trump's announcement that he would delay a decision on joining Israeli strikes against Iran for up to two weeks. Speaking after the meeting, Mr Lammy told reporters: 'It is still clear to me, as President Trump indicated yesterday, that there is a window of within two weeks where we can see a diplomatic solution.' Urging Iran to 'take that off ramp' and talk to the Americans, he said: 'We have a window of time. This is perilous and deadly serious.' He added that the US and Europe were pushing for Iran to agree to zero enrichment of uranium as a 'starting point' for negotiations. But Mr Araghchi said Iran would not negotiate with the US as long as Israel continued to carry out airstrikes against the country, and insisted his country's nuclear programme was entirely peaceful. Both sides continued to exchange fire on Friday, with Iranian missiles targeting the city of Haifa while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv's military operation would continue 'for as long as it takes'. Meanwhile, the UK Government has announced it will use charter flights to evacuate Britons stranded in Israel once the country's airspace reopens. Mr Lammy said work is under way to provide the flights 'based on levels of demand' from UK citizens who want to leave the region. The move follows criticism of the Foreign Office's initial response, which saw family members of embassy staff evacuated while UK citizens were not advised to leave and told to follow local guidance. The Government said the move to temporarily withdraw family members had been a 'precautionary measure'. On Friday, the Foreign Office announced that UK staff had also been evacuated from Iran, with the embassy continuing to operate remotely. But the Government continues to advise British nationals in the region to follow local advice, rather than urging them to leave. The US evacuated 79 staff and families from the embassy in Israel on Friday local time, according to the Associated Press. Mr Trump told reporters his national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard was 'wrong' when she told lawmakers in March that US intelligence officials did not believe Iran had been building a nuclear weapon. The president also suggested it would be 'very hard to stop' Israeli strikes on Iran to negotiate a ceasefire.
