(Reuters) -Delaware state police have taken into custody five suspects after U.S. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon was robbed of her automobile at gunpoint in a Philadelphia park on Wednesday.
The suspects were later located in Scanlon’s vehicle police said.
Scanlon, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District, was unharmed in the mid-afternoon incident which occurred following a meeting of elected officials as she walked to her sport utility vehicle, city police said.
Two armed men believed to be 20 to 30 years of age approached Scanlon and demanded the keys to her vehicle. One man drove off in her car and the other got into a second SUV and followed as the pair made their getaway, according to police.
Several of Scanlon’s personal and work-related items were taken in the stolen vehicle, police said.
The Philadelphia Police Department was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which assumed the lead in the investigation because the victim is a member of Congress, police said.
Police declined to say whether Scanlon may have been singled out by the carjackers because she was recognized as a politician or public figure.
Scanlon serves on the House Judiciary and Rules committees, and is vice chair of the House Administration Committee.
The attack on Scanlon came less than 24 hours after Illinois Democratic State Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford’s SUV was carjacked in the Chicago suburb of Broadway Tuesday night.
Police said Lightford and her husband had their black Mercedes SUV taken by three masked suspects in a Durango SUV at approximately 9:45 p.m. Tuesday.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Rhea Binoy in BengaluruEditing by Leslie Adler and Michael Perry)
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