He had an automatic weapon, highest ranking Republicans outside of the White house rounded up, sitting ducks on a baseball diamond. Fired fifty rounds and didn’t kill anybody.
New York Magazine, “Gunman Targets Congressional Baseball Practice, Shoots GOP Whip”, 14 June 2017:
A gunman opened fire on a field in Alexandria, Virginia, where Republican members of Congress and staffers were practicing for their annual baseball game Wednesday morning. House GOP Whip Steve Scalise was shot, and one of a total of five people taken to the hospital after the shooting, Alexandria police confirmed. The lone gunman was reportedly shot by police, and died in custody from his injuries, President Trump said during a Wednesday-morning statement.
One current Hill staffer, a lobbyist, and two Capitol police officers were among the others injured. Earlier reports that suggested Texas representative Roger Williams had been shot were false, though his office confirmed that one of his staffers, Zach Barth, was among the injured. Barth later posted, via friends on Facebook, that he was okay. Another victim, Matt Mika, a former Hill staffer and now director of government relations for Tyson Foods, reportedly suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The injured Capitol police officers were named by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan as Special Agent David Bailey and Special Agent Crystal Greiner. Both were wounded in a firefight with the suspect. Scalise, the only congressperson injured of the nearly two dozen on the field, is in serious but stable condition. He underwent surgery Wednesday morning.
Law enforcement officials have now identified the gunman as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois. Witnesses described him as a middle-aged white man; he was armed with a pistol and an M4 automatic weapon.
Initial reports indicate that Hodgkinson, who owned a home-inspection business, was an outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter. The Washington Post spoke to an acquaintance who met Hodgkinson on the campaign trail. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Charles Orear told the Post. “I met him on the Bernie trail in Iowa, worked with him in the Quad Cities area.” Hodgkinson also reportedly posted anti-Trump sentiments on his Facebook page. (For more on the shooter, read Daily Intelligencer’s explainer here.) Senator Bernie Sanders condemned the shooting in a statement, which he read on the Senate floor.
Bernie-spastic,