CLEVELAND — Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, said he was “run off the road” Thursday morning in a Cleveland suburb by a man who waved a Palestinian flag and threatened Miller and his young daughter.
The incident, which comes amid acute concerns about a rise in political violence, is being investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police and by police in Rocky River, Ohio.
A suspect, Feras S. Hamdan of Westlake, Ohio, turned himself in to Rocky River police after Miller signed a criminal complaint for aggravated menacing and an arrest warrant was issued, Rocky River officials said. Hamdan’s attorney did not immediately respond to a message.
“I was just driving to work, and I was cut off by a man in a Tesla who held up a Palestinian flag to me, and then rolled down his window and said that ‘I’m going to cut your throat and your daughter’s,” Miller, who is Jewish, is heard saying on a 9111 call, audio of which the Rocky River Police Department released along with a statement Friday. “And he said, ‘You’re a dirty Jew. I’m going to f—ing kill you all, and I know who you are and where you live.’”
Miller, 36, told 911 dispatchers that he followed the man on Interstate 90 and rolled down his window to better hear what he was saying and to take note of his license plate number.
“I am a little shaken, to be quite honest,” Miller told a dispatcher in Lakewood, the neighboring suburb where Miller exited the interstate. “I have a weapon on me. I’m glad I didn’t use it.”
During one stretch of Miller’s 9111 call, a vehicle’s horn can be heard honking — a detail that the dispatcher noted to police officials for their report.
The police report also noted that while officers searched the interstate for a “flag that may have been thrown out” of the suspect’s car, no flag was located there.
Julie Morron, operations manager for the Rocky River Police Department, said a flag has yet to be found but that the investigation is ongoing.
Miller publicly commented on the incident Thursday in a video accompanying a social media post in which he expressed relief that his daughter, who is 1, was not in the car with him.
A police report was not available to the public in the immediate hours after Thursday’s incident, with officials waiting to gather more details before releasing documents Friday. Morron told NBC News on Thursday that Miller had been the alleged victim of a “road rage incident” and “could not wait to speak with officers” but agreed to later in the day. The suspect’s car also had left the area by the time local officers responded, police said.
In his video, Miller said that he had “gone about my day” and “carried on” with scheduled meetings. In a text message late Thursday, Miller wrote that he wanted to keep to his “set schedule of meetings” to “send a message” that his work would not be slowed by the incident.
Miller was later interviewed by police in Rocky River, according to the department’s statement.
“After further investigation, the second party to the road rage incident was identified” as Hamdan, the department said. Hamdan is awaiting a court appearance.
Rocky River officials are investigating the incident, along with Capitol Police, the FBI, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, Rocky River police said.
In a statement Friday, Capitol Police said the department immediately deployed special agents to the area to assist in the investigation and to locate Hamdan.
“In less than 24 hours, the USCP received notification of a threat against a Member of Congress, had boots on the ground, collaborated with the local police department, and the suspect in the case was arrested that same evening,” acting Capitol Police chief Sean Gallagher said the statement. “This case is a prime example of the USCP’s stance towards threats against our elected officials. We will continue to have a zero-tolerance policy.”
The alleged incident occurred about 10 miles west of Cleveland and came less than a week after two Democratic state lawmakers were shot — one fatally — in what authorities have described as a politically motivated attack in Minnesota.
“If you have an issue with a legislator, your city councilman, your mayor, anyone like that, the appropriate thing to do is to reach out to them for a phone call, to set up a meeting at one of our district offices,” Miller said in his video. “What is not OK is to assault anyone, whether you’re a member of Congress or anybody else within our district, while you’re driving to work.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote in a social media post Thursday that the incident “is yet another outrageous example of unhinged rhetoric inspiring unstable people to threaten and attack elected officials who are serving their communities.”
Johnson added: “We must turn down the temperature in this country.”
House Democratic leaders also condemned the incident.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the attack on Congressman Max Miller and his family and are thankful they are safe,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California said Thursday in a joint statement. “The rise in political violence in this country is unacceptable. This is a moment of crisis that requires Congress to act decisively in order to ensure the safety of every single Member who serves in the People’s House.”
