(Reuters) – Two people were shot on Sunday outside the home of New York congressman and Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who has made addressing crime and violence a key point of his campaign, he said in a statement.
The shooting appeared to have no connection to the Zeldin family, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing police and officials familiar with the ongoing probe.
Zeldin said he did not know the identities of the two individuals who were shot, but said they had been laying down under his front porch and the bushes in front of it.
Zeldin said only his two daughters were at home at the time of the shooting. Further details of the shooting and its motives were not clear.
“My daughters are shaken, but ok. Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door,” Zeldin said in his statement.
Suffolk County Police said the two people injured in the incident were transported to area hospitals for treatment.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, against whom Zeldin is running, said she had been briefed on the shooting.
Zeldin was attacked at a July campaign event by a New York man who now faces federal charges of assaulting a member of Congress using a deadly weapon. There was no indication that the Sunday shooting was linked to the July attack.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Julia Harte; Editing by Stephen Coates)
