A 25-year-old man who said he was angry about crime in Memphis and wanted to confront the city’s mayor scaled a wall at the mayor’s home late Sunday night and, armed with a stun gun, knocked on the front door, according to the Memphis Police Department.
The man, Trenton Abston, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with attempted kidnapping, stalking and aggravated criminal trespass in connection with the episode at the home of Mayor Paul Young. The police said that they had later recovered the stun gun, as well as gloves, rope and duct tape, from Mr. Abston’s car.
Mr. Young was home, along with his wife and two young children, when he saw the man knock on his door through his doorbell camera, the police said.
“Paul Young reported that he did not know the male and his presence at his door at a late hour wearing a hoodie and gloves put him, his wife and children in fear for their safety,” according to a criminal complaint filed on Wednesday.
According to the complaint, in footage recorded by the mayor’s doorbell video camera, the man appeared to have “a lumpy bulge” in the pocket of his hoodie when he knocked on the door. Mr. Young did not open the door, and the man fled.
Mr. Young recounted the events of Sunday night in a Facebook post on Wednesday under a family portrait in which he, his wife and their two school-age children are smiling.
“We now know that he walked straight to our home, knocking on the door with gloves on, a full pocket, and a nervous demeanor,” Mr. Young wrote. “In today’s climate, especially after the tragic events in Minnesota and the threats my wife and I often receive online, none of us can be too careful.”
It was unclear if Mr. Abston, who was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday, had a lawyer.
The man approached the Young home less than 48 hours after a man dressed a police officer entered the homes of two Minnesota state lawmakers and shot them and their partners in a “politically motivated” act of violence, according to the authorities in Minnesota.
The targeting of Senator John A. Hoffman and Representative Melissa Hortman, who was killed in her home alongside her husband, has left elected officials on edge across the country.
“The link between angry online rhetoric and real-life violence is becoming undeniable,” Mr. Young wrote in his post. He added that “political violence and intimidation — whether threatened or enacted — simply cannot become our norm.”
But in many ways, horrific acts or attempts at violence against election officials have already become the norm. In the past three months alone, a man set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s residence while the governor and his family were asleep inside, and the Republican Party headquarters in New Mexico was firebombed.
In the statement announcing Mr. Abston’s arrest, the Memphis police urged residents to “stay alert.” They said that public and private security cameras that clearly captured the suspect’s face had helped them “identify, locate and arrest the suspect.”
Cameras in the gated neighborhood captured the man scaling a wall eight to 10 feet high to gain entry.
The police identified Mr. Abston as a “person of interest” on Tuesday, and his work manager then positively identified him in surveillance footage from Sunday night, the police said. After he was detained, Mr. Abston gave the police permission to search his car, in which they recovered the stun gun, the duct tape and the rope, according to the complaint.
The police said that Mr. Abston had knocked on the doors of several homes that night, causing concern in the neighborhood.
Mr. Abston told investigators that he had wanted to confront Mr. Young “about crime in the city of Memphis,” according to the complaint. He also said that he had researched Mr. Young’s address and had driven past it several times to confirm that the mayor lived there.
“Abston took substantial steps toward the commission of a kidnapping,” the complaint concluded.
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
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