National News

What we know about the shooting at a congressional baseball practice

Law enforcement officers investigate at the scene of the shooting in Alexandria, Virginia.

By Dialynn Dwyer

4 minutes to read

A gunman opened fire Wednesday morning during a GOP congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., injuring several people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

Republican lawmakers were on the field at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park practicing for the annual charity Congressional Baseball Game scheduled for Thursday, NPR reports.

Several people, including the suspect, were wounded and transported to local hospitals, and President Donald Trump announced the gunman has since died.

How the shooting unfolded

Alexandria police said they received reports of the shooting at 7:09 a.m. and arrived on the scene in three minutes, engaging “gunfire and return fire.”

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Capitol Police officers who were already on scene in Scalise’s security detail returned fire and wounded the shooter, according to the AP.

Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, told CNN he had a bat in his hand and a helmet on his head when the shooting erupted.

“I was a sitting duck,” he said.

Brooks said people were lying on the floor of the dugout, trying to take cover. He never heard the shooter utter a word.

“There was a lot of screaming, a lot of hollering,” he said. “People were yelling, ‘Shooter shooter, active shooter.'”

According to the Associated Press, Rep. Mike Bishop of Michigan said Scalise was at second base when he was shot. His injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. 

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https://twitter.com/RepMikeBishop/status/874972817732796417

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake told CNN two members of Scalise’s security detail were wounded, one of whom he said continued to shoot back at the gunman despite his injury.

Brooks told CNN he saw a number of congressmen and their staffers on the ground and at least one of them was wounded.

Rep. Ron. DeSantis of Florida told Fox News that he left the baseball practice a few minutes before the shooting started and a man approached him while he was getting into the car and asked which political party was practicing on the field. It was unclear whether that man was the shooter or whether that exchange was connected with the incident.

“There was a guy that walked up to us that was asking whether there was Republicans or Democrats out there,” he said. “And it was just a little odd and then he kind of walked toward the area where all this happened.”

Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina told reporters he also thinks he spoke with the shooter Wednesday morning, saying when he was leaving the field a man “asked me if the team practicing was a Democrat or Republican team,” according to The Washington Post.

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President Donald Trump reacted to the shooting on Twitter.

The wounded

Rep. Scalise’s office put out a statement Wednesday morning saying the lawmaker was shot in the hip and was undergoing surgery. He was in stable condition.

MedStar Washington Hospital said Wednesday afternoon that the congressman remained in critical condition, while another patient who was injured in the shooting is in ‘good condition.’

Congressman Roger Williams, a Republican from Texas who has been a coach on the team since 2013, confirmed in a statement that a member of his staff was shot and receiving medical attention. Williams later identified the staffer as Zack Barth, a legislative correspondent, and said he is expected to make a full recovery.

A spokeswoman at the George Washington University Hospital told the AP two people from the shooting were being treated at the hospital and were both in critical condition.

Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa told The Washington Post his officers did not suffer life-threatening injuries and are in good condition.

A lobbyist for Tyson Foods, Matt Mika, was also among the wounded, according to the Post. Information about his condition was not immediately available.

“We are united in our shock, we are united in our anguish,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said on the House Floor. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

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During his remarks, Ryan named the victims of the shootings, including two Capitol police officers, special agents David Bailey and Crystal Griner.

What we know about the shooter

Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois, according to The Washington PostTrump announced late Wednesday morning at a press conference that the gunman died from his injuries.

An acquaintance of Hodgkinson’s told the Post they met while working on Vermont Senator Bernie Sander’s presidential campaign in Iowa.

“I am sickened by this despicable act,” Sanders said in a statement condemning the shooting, adding “Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society.”

According to the Associated Press, Hodgkinson belonged to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party” and had several arrests on his record.

He also wrote several letters to the editor of his local newspaper, The Belleville News-Democrat, in 2012.  The newspaper posted his letters online Wednesday.

“If the rich paid their fair share of taxes today, we wouldn’t be in this predicament,” Hodgkinson wrote in July 2012. “We need to vote all Republicans out of Congress.”

The next month, he wrote: “I have never said ‘life sucks,’ only the policies of the Republicans.”

Brooks earlier told CNN that he only saw the shooter, who was behind the third base dugout, for a second or two.

“The gun was a semiautomatic,” Brooks told the network.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told CNN “it would have been a massacre” if it weren’t for the Capitol Hill Police officers who were present.

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“Nobody would have survived without the Capitol Hill police,” Paul said.

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