The privileged son of a disgraced former aide to President George W. Bush has been charged with killing a man with a hatchet at his father's home in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
According to police, 20-year-old Claude Alexander Allen III called in an attempted burglary shortly after midnight this morning. Allen claimed that he'd killed a burglar, 25-year-old Michael Phillip Harvey, with a hatchet after finding him trying to break into the property on the 7200 block of Cliff Pine Drive. Police say they discovered upon arrival that Allen knew Harvey and that Harvey's death was not the result of a burglary.
Reports the Washington Post, "Harvey was found dead in a wooded area about 75 yards behind the suspect’s home, but police believe the attack began in the two-car garage."
Allen's father, Claude A. Allen, owns the Gaithersburg home with his wife, and was the lawyer turned Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President Bush. He eventually resigned from that position in shame after being caught repeatedly stealing from Target and Hecht's stores in 2006.
Despite losing his cushy White House job, Allen, an evangelical Christian, is apparently still doing very well for himself: Houses on Cliff Pine Drive tend to sell for $750,000 and up.
Police say they currently have no motive in Claude Alexander Allen III's murder case.
[Image via AP]