UPDATE on Thursday at 3pm eastern:
- House Majority Whip Steve Scalise still in critical condition.
- This morning, Scalise underwent third surgery in 24 hours.
- President Trump and the First Lady visited Scalise last night.
- Vice President Pence visited him this morning.
- Security concerns among lawmakers on Capitol Hill growing.
(Washington, D.C.) — Washington has been shaken by a brazen, premeditated domestic terror attack on Members of Congress.
Security has been tightened at the White House and around the Capitol.
No evidence of foreign terrorism.
The man who opened fire on Members of Congress and Congressional staff at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia — wounding five people, including the House Majority Whip — has just died.
James Hodgkinson, 66, of Illinois, was shot by Capitol Police during his morning rampage in which he may fired as many as 100 rounds. He was rushed to the hospital under police supervision but succumbed to his wounds.
Multiple news reports say he was Bernie Sanders supporter who volunteered on the Sanders presidential campaign. He reportedly said he was going to “destroy Trump.” One report said he seemed intent on “killing as many Republicans as possible.”
Here’s the latest on this developing story.
In the meantime, please continue praying for all those wounded and traumatized. Let us also be extremely grateful to the quick response and professionalism of the Capitol Police and other heroes on the scene who prevented this terrible event from become a deadly bloodbath.
Here’s the latest from the New York Times:
- A lone gunman opened fire on Republican members of the congressional baseball team at a practice field in a Washington suburb Wednesday, using a rifle to shower the field with bullets that struck five people, including Steve Scalise, the majority whip of the House of Representatives.
- President Trump, in a statement from the White House, said the shooting suspect had died.
- Law enforcement authorities identified him as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, from Belleville, Ill., a suburb of St. Louis.
- Two members of Mr. Scalise’s protective police detail were wounded as they exchanged gunfire with the gunman in what other lawmakers described as a chaotic, terror-filled ten minutes that turned the baseball practice into an early-morning nightmare.
- The police said two of the five people were critically wounded.
- Standing at second base, Mr. Scalise was struck in the hip, according to witnesses, and collapsed as the shots rang out, one after another, from behind a chain-link fence near the third-base dugout.
- Witnesses said Mr. Scalise, of Louisiana, “army crawled” his way toward taller grass as the shooting continued.
- The authorities said the Capitol Police and local officers arrived minutes after they received desperate calls for help from those under siege at the field.
- The F.B.I. said the bureau would take the lead in the investigation, treating it as an assault on a federal officer….
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Mr. Hodgkinson appeared to be have been fervent fan of Senator Bernie Sanders, according to a Facebook page with references to the Vermont senator. A LinkedIn page for James Hodgkinson had a profile photo showing Mr. Sanders’s famous hair and glasses and the words, “The Dawn of a New Democracy.”
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In a statement Wednesday morning, Mr. Sanders said he had been told the alleged shooter had volunteered for his presidential campaign. Mr. Sanders offered his “hopes and prayers” for the shooting victims….
- The gunman who opened fire on a Republican congressional baseball practice session this morning before being killed by cops has been identified as a Trump-hating Bernie Sanders supporter.
- Sixty-six-year-old James T. Hodgkinson from Belleville, Illinois, was killed by Capitol Police after firing up to 100 rounds from an assault rifle at a baseball park in Alexandria, Virginia, leaving five injured including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
- Hodgkinson was a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter and campaigned for the left-wing senator to get the Democratic nomination for president last year. The union tradesman, who ran a home inspection business, threatened to ‘destroy’ the president and his administration on social media.
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