(ReliableNews.org) – Two years ago, Congress passed a bill granting around-the-clock security for Supreme Court justices. President Joe Biden signed the legislation, which went into effect that year. Two US marshals protecting one of the justices recently opened fire on an alleged carjacker.
On July 5, at about 1:17 a.m., two US marshals were stationed outside of a location in Washington, DC, when a silver minivan stopped next to their vehicle. A man got out of the minivan and walked up to the protective detail while they were sitting in an unmarked government vehicle. The man pulled out a gun and aimed it at the officers.
One of the marshals drew his own firearm, pointed it at the suspect, and shot him four times. Law enforcement identified him as 18-year-old Kentrell Flowers. One of the shots from the marshal struck him in his mouth. They provided first aid to the suspect, and he was treated at the hospital for his injuries.
Flowers was later arrested and charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding an officer using a dangerous weapon and attempted carjacking.
A spokesperson for the US Marshals Service told the media that the deputies were part of Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s protective detail. They were parked near the justice’s home at the time of the incident. She was not the target of the attack.
In the wake of the shooting, several conservatives have criticized Sotomayor for her stance on gun issues. They have pointed to her decision to join former Justice Steven Breyer’s 2010 dissent in McDonald v. Chicago. She agreed that the Constitution doesn’t protect “a private right of armed self-defense.”
Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt told Fox News Digital that he hopes the justice would “open her eyes,” calling it “hypocritical” that her security detail had to use their right to protect themselves.
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