Police are investigating after two deputy U.S. Marshals who were guarding Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s home fired several shots at an 18-year-old who is charged with an attempted carjacking. 

The marshals were reportedly parked outside of the justice’s northwest D.C. home at 1:15 a.m. on Friday when the suspect, Kentrell Flowers, approached one of them with a gun and attempted to steal his car. 

The marshal fired “several shots at the suspect,” authorities said, and the second marshal also fired his weapon at him. The suspect was then transported to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, police said, adding that the marshals were not injured. The suspect is charged with armed carjacking, carrying a pistol without a license, and possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device.

A D.C. police tracker indicates that in 2024 there have been 258 carjackings, with 71 percent involving guns. Several recent incidents have sparked national attention, including a 2023 break-in of a Secret Service car outside of a house in Georgetown of President Biden’s eldest granddaughter, Naomi Biden. 

Justice Sotomayor, a President Obama appointee, has faced criticism from gun rights advocates over the years, and has taken a harder stance towards guns than some of her fellow justices. In a Supreme Court ruling in June overturning a ban on bump stocks, Justice Sotomayor said the decision puts “bump stocks back in civilian hands” and that it would have “deadly consequences.” 
Yet, notably, she authored a recent Supreme Court opinion siding with the National Rifle Association as it sought to revive a First Amendment lawsuit against financial regulators that attempted to bankrupt the organization because of its pro-gun views.