WASHINGTON ― As a dozen U.S. Marshals patrolled the busy U Street corridor on Friday night, they faced angry D.C. residents who felt they had no need to be there.
When a HuffPost reporter asked one of the agents if he worried for his safety – that is, if he feared someone might launch a Subway sandwich at him ― he flashed a smile.
“Only if it’s a footlong,” the officer said.
Everyone’s talking about the “assault with a deli weapon,” the “hurl of sandwich” — the felony with a footlong that occurred on Aug. 10 after federal law enforcement officers descended on the city.
As if by mutual agreement between the White House and its haters, the sandwich attack has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s militarized takeover of D.C.’s police.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the nation’s highest law enforcement official, personally denounced Sean Dunn, the 37-year-old man in a pink polo shirt who allegedly threw a Subway sandwich at a Customs and Border Patrol officer. The White House even made a hype video apparently showing his second arrest by heavily armed federal agents.
Over the weekend, posters memorializing the sandwich assault went up all over the city. The image, a riff off a mural by the street artist Banksy, depicts a masked figure with his arm cocked back as if to throw a rock or a molotov cocktail, but he’s holding a colorful hoagie instead. (In the Banksy original, it’s a bouquet of flowers.)
An increased presence of law enforcement has been seen throughout the nation’s capital since Donald Trump announced plans to deploy federal officers and the U.S. National Guard.
Kayla Bartkowski via Getty Images
It’s an apt symbol of a situation that’s at once tense, dangerous and a little ridiculous. In response to a supposed “crime emergency,” masked federal agents have been violently abducting delivery drivers while National Guard troops park their humvees outside Union Station like it’s a war zone.
The administration has touted its arrest totals, saying federal agents are getting homicide suspects and drug traffickers, but its proudest takedown has been a guy who threw food.
In a statement to HuffPost, the White House said it’s standing up for law enforcement.
“This man assaulted a law enforcement officer after repeatedly screaming at him and berating him inches from his face,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an email. “HuffPo should do some real journalism and see who’s putting up posters glorifying assault on a police officer.”
The sentiment is a bit rich coming from a White House that issued pardons to more than 600 people who were similarly charged with assaulting, resisting or interfering with law enforcement during the mob riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
As for Dunn, he was first arrested immediately after allegedly throwing the sandwich. Then, after being released, he was indicted on federal charges, and federal law enforcement officers arrested him a second time at his apartment.
On Thursday, the White House released a dramatic video that apparently shows what happened. The hardboiled video uses text to indicate it was late at night ― 11:09 p.m. ― and says the action is going down in “West End, DC” which is actually one of the city’s safest neighborhoods. Officers with shields and helmets enter an apartment building and appear ready to kick down a door before it opens and they enter. The video cuts to a man who resembles Dunn offering no resistance as he’s handcuffed in the hallway.
The White House, Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia declined to confirm the video showed Dunn’s arrest. Dunn and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Dunn tried to turn himself in to face a felony charge of assaulting an officer, his attorney said in court, according to WUSA9, but instead, the government sent 20 federal officers to arrest him at his apartment.
Attorney General Bondi said Dunn had been fired from a job at the Justice Department in a statement setting up Dunn’s case as an example of what can happen to D.C. residents who interfere with police during Trump’s takeover.
“If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you,” Bondi said.
Jeannine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, made a video statement about Dunn, accusing him of thinking it was funny to throw the sandwich.
“Well he doesn’t think it’s funny today because we charged him with a felony,” Pirro said. “Stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else!”
At a protest over the weekend, several people used sandwich imagery on their signs, and at least two people even carried baguettes as a symbol of resistance.
DOMINIC GWINN via Getty Images
Dunn’s alleged sandwich assault was captured on a widely-seen social media video that showed a man wearing shorts and a pink polo shirt, yelling at officers, calling them “fascists” before throwing the sandwich and trying to run away.
“At approximately 11:06 PM, DUNN approached V-1 and threw a sandwich at him, striking V-1 in the chest,” a D.C. Metro Transit Police officer wrote in a statement of facts for the court. “An Instagram video recorded by an observer captured the incident. The video depicts DUNN screaming at V-1 within inches of his face for several seconds before winding his arm back and forcefully throwing a sub-style sandwich at V-1.”
Dunn’s attorney argued the felony charge is excessive, considering nobody was hurt, and a judge released Dunn on his own recognizance.
In one of the original videos of the incident, a bystander gets a close-up shot of the sandwich left lying in the street. A caption reads, “This sandwich is going up in history.”