Congresswoman said she faced death threats after being attacked in her DC apartment

(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Angie Craig’s physical injuries healed relatively quickly after a February assault in her apartment building — but her “mental and emotional” recovery has taken “much longer” and is ongoing while she grapples with continued safety concerns, she said in a new victim impact statement.

Her remarks were filed by prosecutors on Tuesday ahead of Kendrid Hamlin’s sentencing in federal court in Washington. In June, he pleaded guilty to assault.

A police report previously obtained by ABC News stated the altercation began when Craig saw a man acting erratically in her building, as if “he was under the influence on an unknown substance.”

Craig said she told the man — Hamlin — “good morning,” according to the police report. She went to the elevator where he followed her, then started to do push-ups in the elevator.

In her victim impact statement this week, Craig detailed what happened that day.

“While this case has received much attention because I am a Member of Congress, that morning I was simply a woman followed into an elevator by a man and assaulted there,” Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, wrote in her statement.

She recalled how Hamlin “trapped me inside.”

“He grabbed my neck and slammed me into the steel wall. He punched me in the face. He attempted to pull me back as the doors opened, and I screamed for help,” she wrote.

During the attack, Craig fended Hamlin off by pouring hot coffee on him, but he escaped before officers could arrest him, according to the police report.

“Physically, the attack left bruising and a cut to my lip, as well as several days of soreness and discomfort,” Craig wrote in her victim impact statement.

“While my physical recovery was days, my mental and emotional recovery has taken much longer and is ongoing. My sense of safety and security has been significantly impacted,” she wrote.

Craig was left with “periodic anxiety” in the aftermath of the attack, which had “significantly broader consequences” than how he injured her, she wrote.

A media outlet disclosed the address of her apartment, forcing her to break her lease because of security concerns, she wrote. And “following comments by media personalities about my assault, I received a flurry of additional targeted physical violence and death threats to myself and my staff.”

Her wife and their four sons had been shaken, too.

Though she felt “very fortunate” to have escaped Hamlin’s assault without greater harm, she wrote that she wanted to highlight the suffering it did cause.

She also wrote that she hoped Hamlin can get mental health and addiction treatment while he is incarcerated.

“Until that occurs, given his history of previous convictions and my own experience, I believe he would continue to be a further threat to others,” she wrote.

A lawyer for Hamlin did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.