Who is William DeFoor, the ‘crazy’ man behind the attack on JD Vance’s house?

One would believe that the house of the United States vice president is well guarded. However, on Monday morning (January 5), a hammer-wielding vandal managed to break into the premises of JD Vance’s Ohio home, and smashed many windows before he was arrested.

Fortunately, neither Vance nor the Second Lady Usha Vance were at the house at the moment of the attack — the couple had departed for Washington a day earlier.

Now, the vandal, identified as 26-year-old William DeFoor, has been arrested and charged in Hamilton County Municipal Court with criminal damaging, obstructing official business, criminal trespass and felony vandalism. The accused has also been charged with damaging government property, engaging in physical violence against any person or property in a restricted building or grounds, and assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers.

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But what exactly happened? Who is DeFoor, the individual behind the attack on Vance’s house? What was the motive behind the attack?

What happened at JD Vance’s Ohio home?

It was after midnight on January 5 when Secret Service agents heard a loud noise at the Vance home and found DeFoor had broken a window with a hammer and was trying to get into the house. According to the officials, the suspect had also vandalised a Secret Service vehicle on his way up the driveway.

The incident occurred at Vance’s Ohio home, which is located in the East Walnut Hills neighbourhood on William Howard Taft Drive. Vance and his wife, Usha, purchased the home for about $1.4 million (Rs 12.63 crore) in 2018.

A US Secret Service officer alerted local police around 12.15 am after spotting a person “running eastbound” near the property, a Cincinnati police dispatcher told FOX19 NOW. Police officers and Secret Service agents were immediately deployed, and the suspect was detained shortly after.

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Vance and his family were not present in the house at the time of the attack. However, as per protocol, some of the US Secret Service personnel was present at the premise.

Images from Vance’s house showed a number of shattered windows at the residence. According to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office in Cincinnati, the strikes caused damaged to the “enhanced security assets” on each window, valued at more than $28,000 (Rs 25.28 lakh).

After being arrested, the suspect, identified as Defoor, has been charged with vandalism, obstruction of an official business and criminal trespass. However, the motive behind the attack remains unknown.

Who is William DeFoor? Why did he attack Vance’s house?

Now, in custody, the man behind the attack has been identified as 26-year-old William DeFoor. He is the son of a prominent millionaire family and is a Cincinnati native himself.

While it’s not clear if he’s a transgender, Defoor has been going by the name “Julia” in recent weeks. DeFoor, it appears, had created a recent Facebook page under the name of Julia a month ago, and included a transgender wellness centre among the page’s likes.

Investigations reveal the 26-year-old grew up in a $1.3 million home in the affluent Hyde Park neighbourhood with two younger siblings, the child of a surgeon father, William, and a paediatrician mother, Catherine, who are both registered Democrats. As per a Daily Mail report, DeFoor’s father is a supporter of Democratic causes; he donated more than $11,600 to Kamala Harris’ campaign. He also donated to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.

As per the Facebook page, DeFoor graduated from high school in 2018 before attending the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. The suspect did not appear to have finished the course and enrolled at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College last year.

DeFoor is also a registered voter in Ohio. However, no party affiliation has been made public.

While DeFoor is been charged with vandalising Vance’s house, this isn’t his first brush with the law. Last year, DeFoor was charged with vandalism after windows at a business in Hyde Park were broken, according to court records. That case was referred to a mental health docket, and DeFoor was granted “treatment in lieu of conviction”. That treatment was still ongoing, according to court documents.

Earlier, in 2023, DeFoor was charged with trespassing at the US Health psychiatric emergency services and held on a $10,000 bond — but a judge determined he was not mentally competent to stand trial and the counts were dismissed later that year.

What does Vance say about the attack?

Vice President JD Vance heaped praise on law enforcement officials in Ohio following the incident. In a post on X, the US vice president wrote: “I appreciate everyone’s well wishes about the attack at our home. As far as I can tell, a crazy person tried to break in by hammering the windows. I’m grateful to the secret service and the Cincinnati police for responding quickly.”

He then slammed the media for covering the incident. “One request to the media: we try to protect our kids as much as possible from the realities of this life of public service. In that light, I am sceptical of the news value of plastering images of our home with holes in the windows.”

The vandalism at Vance’s Ohio residence on Monday evokes memories of an incident that occurred last March. At the time, Vance claimed that he was chased by pro-Ukraine protesters in Ohio’s Cincinnati when he was out on a walk with his three-year-old daughter, leaving her “anxious and scared” by their shouts. He then decided to talk to the protesters — which resulted in a “mostly” respectful conversation.

“I decided to speak with the protesters in the hopes that I could trade a few minutes of conversation for them leaving my toddler alone. (Nearly all of them agreed),” Vance wrote on X at the time. “It was a mostly respectful conversation, but if you’re chasing a three-year-old as part of a political protest, you’re a s–t person.”

With inputs from agencies