The FBI has launched an investigation after a gunshot was fired into the family home of a Republican congressional candidate while his young children were fast asleep inside.
The shooting unfolded on the night of 18 October at the home of the parents of Pat Harrigan, a former Green Beret and firearms manufacturer who is running for an open US House seat in the midterms.
Mr Harrigan’s mother Marla Harrigan, 74, told The Associated Press on Thursday that she and her husband were watching television when a single bullet was fired through their laundry room window.
No one was injured in the shooting, however the laundry room is directly below the room where Mr Harrigan’s two young children, aged 3 and 5, were sleeping upstairs.
Officers from the Hickory Police Department responded to the property and noted in their report that the incident involved a firearm.
The FBI is now investigating the incident.
The GOP candidate was not at the property at the time and does not live there.
But Ms Harrigan said that his children had been staying with her at her home for much of the campaign cycle.
Now, following the shooting, the children have been moved out of state “out of an abundance of caution”, she said.
Jordan Shaw, a spokesperson for Mr Harrigan’s campaign, said that the congressional candidate had also been receiving numerous death threats during his campaign run.
The threats had been submitted to the police to aid their investigation, he said.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr Harrigan – who is running against Democratic state senator Jeff Jackson for the North Carolina’s 14th congressional district seat – insisted that he wasn’t afraid of the threats.
“I’m focused on fixing the economy, lowering prices and keeping our streets safe,” said the firearms manufacturer and US Army Special Forces veteran.
“And it’ll take more than a bullet and death threats to knock this Green Beret off that mission.”
The shooting incident comes amid a rise in threats against lawmakers.
In an intelligence bulletin on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies warned political candidates of a heightened risk of violence around the midterms.
That same day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked by a hammer-wielding man in the couple’s San Francisco home.
The attack left her husband Paul Pelosi, 82, hospitalised and in need of surgery for a fractured skull.
Investigators said that suspect David DePape was looking for the House speaker and planned to “break her kneecaps”.
Before the incident, Mr DePape had been spouting right-wing conspiracies online.
