“Jurors Say Baloney to Claim that Sandwich Hurler Tried to Harm Federal Agent”
That’s how The New York Times introduced a report detailing the government case against Sean C. Dunn, age 37, a former paralegal in the Department of Justice acquitted of misdemeanor charges for hurling a footlong salami sub (yes, from Subway; you can’t make this up!) at “point-blank” range toward Gregory Lairmore, a Customs and Border Patrol agent clad in an armored vest, on the streets of Washington, D.C.
The occasion was a public demonstration against armed agents located in the vicinity of a “Latino bar” thought to be an enclave for undocumented immigrants. The Times cited Dunn’s insistence that he was defending such immigrants because, “every life matters, no matter where you come from, no matter how you got here.”
Bill Leonard
A video of the encounter went viral, Dunn was arrested by police, released, then rearrested for felony assault by U.S. marshals on an order from former Fox TV host Jeanine Pirro, now U.S. attorney for D.C.
Attorney General Pam Bondi entered the fray, apparently recognizing the threat this incident posed to the republic, and insisting Dunn’s former government employment clearly illustrated “the Deep State we have been up against.” She obviously understands her DOJ task to rid the U.S. government of potential sandwich hurlers. (Will Subway sandwiches now require weapon registration?)
Dunn was whisked before a grand jury which refused to bring felony charges against him. After that, the DOJ lowered the charge to a misdemeanor, dragging the “sandwich shooter” before yet another grand jury that also refused to indict.
In her online “Civil Discourse” column, legal scholar Joyce Vance highlights a series of tweets from Molly Roberts, lawfare senior editor, including these comments: “The officer Sandwich Guy (Mr. Dunn) is charged with assaulting testifies that he could feel the impact of the sandwich through his ballistic vest, and it ‘exploded all over my uniform.’ He says he could ‘smell the onions and the mustard.’” (Clearly the officer responded courageously to such dangerous olfactory threats!)
Of the misdemeanor charge involving a second trial, Dunn’s attorney told the grand jury: “You’re not going to be asked if you feel bad for the agent who took a sandwich to the chest. You’re going to be asked whether what happened that night is a federal crime.” The jurors agreed it was not.
As if the “Great Sandwich Case” did not manifest enough irony, turns out the grand jury was convened on, you guessed it, “National Sandwich Day,” a date ironically applicable since the DOJ found itself in quite a pickle.
Releasing grinders against law officers is not an appropriate act but neither are criminal charges for the event, as two grand juries insightfully ruled. Yet what does this tragi-comical incident suggest about the current state of politics, law enforcement and dissent in the land of the somewhat less than free and the home of the increasingly cowered? And what of violence against protesters initiated by “law enforcement” authorities like ICE?
FBI and Border Patrol officers speak with Sean Charles Dunn, after he allegedly assaulted law enforcement with a sandwich, along the U Street corridor during a federal law enforcement deployment to the nation’s capital on August 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an increased presence of federal law enforcement in Washington, D.C, in an effort to curb crime. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images).
Sean Dunn’s acquittal occurred the same week Courthouse News Service reported, “A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to a group of protesters, journalists and clergy members on Thursday, determining that federal immigration officers used improper and excessive force against them. ‘I see little reason for the use of force that the federal agents are currently using,’ U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said.”
Indeed, dissenting groups and individuals across the country continue to raise concerns about the often-harsh tactics used by various constabulary agencies in responding to arrestees and protesters alike. These include the use of tear gas and bodily assaults.
On Nov. 6, ICE agents stormed Rayito de Sol, a Spanish immersion day care in North Center, Chicago and, after an elaborate search, arrested a member of the caregiver staff. Common Dreams reported Chicago Alderman Matt Martin said the agents followed the person “to her job and chased her into the building, where they ‘tore her away’ from the children and pushed her coworkers as they tried to intervene. They then dragged her outside with her hands pulled behind her back, before at least one agent reentered the building and … went from room to room and demanded to see evidence that other teachers were legal residents.”
A federal immigration enforcement agent sprays David Black, of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, as he and other protesters demonstrate outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Nor have clergy been spared. In October, David Black of First Presbyterian Church participated in a protest at a Chicago-based U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
Clad in a clerical collar, with arms outstretched toward ICE agents on the building’s roof, he began to pray. Said Black: “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”
As the ICE agents knocked him to the ground, “I heard them laughing.”
As his prayer ended, ICE agents began spraying Black and others with pepper balls, causing immediate eye and lung distress. Black was struck in the head, he fell to the ground and later recalled: “I heard them laughing.”
And what of justice in America 2025? CNN reports: “There have been 64 school shootings in the United States so far this year, as of Oct. 27. Thirty-seven were on college campuses, and 27 were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left 26 people dead and at least 100 other victims injured, according to CNN’s analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety.”
Has that continuing reality sparked major new firearm legislation? Of course not. But this November when a Chicago appeals court judge ordered the now shutdown government to utilize designated reserve funds to continue feeding Americans through the SNAP program, the administration begged the Supreme Court to withhold that order, which it did, at least temporarily.
Thus, without realizing it, SCOTUS and POTUS have essentially outlawed sandwiches for large segments of the American population. Millions are hungry. Where’s the justice in that?
Amid this chaos, two biblical texts come to mind:
Psalm 24: 3-4 asks: “Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord?’ And answers: “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.”
Amos 5:24, revised in light of this American moment might read:
Let justice roll down like sandwiches,
And righteousness like a mighty stream (of hand sanitizer).
America, America, God shed his grace on thee.
(And soon!)
Bill Leonard is founding dean and the James and Marilyn Dunn professor of Baptist studies and church history emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, N.C. He is the author or editor of 25 books. A native Texan, he lives in Winston-Salem with his wife, Candyce, and their daughter, Stephanie.