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Shots reportedly fired at congressional baseball team practice in Virginia

A shooting was reported early Wednesday at a congressional baseball game practice field in Alexandria, Va.

A reporter from the Huffington Post tweeted that a congressman said he "heard there was a shooting at the Congressional baseball game practice field."

ABC 7 News reported "multiple shooting" in the 400 block of E. Monroe Street.

The suspect is "believed in custody," ABC reported, according to Alexandria police.

GOP Whip Steve Scalise and two Capitol Police officers were shot, according to multiple reports

A reporter from Fox News also tweeted that staffers were hit.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) left practice shortly before the shooting, and he believes he spoke with the gunman briefly before getting into a car with his staffers about 7:10 a.m., reported Fox News.

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

Lord Jim wrote:I was listening to Rand Paul being interviewed On Morning Joe a little while ago (he was in the batting cage when the shooting began) he said that if Scalise hadn't been there, the tragedy would have been much worse, because there would have been no Capitol Police on hand to engage the shooter...

Apparently the political atmosphere has become so poisonous that even the party whips these days have security details...

Don't forget this has happened before. Gabby Gifford and 18 others were shot in 2011. She is lucky she survived, but six others didn't including a federal district court judge.

MajGenl.Meade wrote:

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) left practice shortly before the shooting, and he believes he spoke with the gunman briefly before getting into a car with his staffers about 7:10 a.m., reported Fox News.

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

Guinevere wrote:You're a fucking asshole Liberty.

Lord Jim wrote:Lib, was it really necessary to bring your running battle with Scooter into this thread?

What battle, if there is a battle it is one sided.

I don't really see anything humorous about this terrible event...

What battle, if there is a battle it is one sided

Suspect in congressional baseball shooting now dead



The suspected shooter in today's incident in Virginia is 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

President Donald Trump announced this morning during remarks about the shooting that the suspect is now dead.

"The assailant has now died from his injuries," Trump said, not using Hodgkinson's name.

Hodgkinson's wife told ABC News that her husband had been living in Alexandria, Virginia, for the past two months. Hodgkinson left his job as a "home inspector, mold/air quality tester," according to his Facebook page.

Hodgkinson has an extensive history of traffic violations and petty offenses in St. Clair County, Illinois, spanning from 1989 to 2011, according to online county court records.

The vast majority of the cases are traffic violations and nearly all of them were later dismissed. The most recent conviction on his record was for a “petty offense” of failure to obtain an electrical contractor’s license in 2009.

NBC News360 × 360Search by image
In this undated file photo, James Hodgkinson holds a sign during a protest outside of a United States Post Office in Belleville, Ill.

The man suspected of firing dozens of rounds into an Alexandria baseball field Wednesday morning has been identified by federal law enforcement officials as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill.

A Facebook page belonging to a person with the same name includes pictures of Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and rhetoric against President Trump, including a post that reads: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”

Hodgkinson was among those taken to a hospital Wednesday, and President Trump announced that he had died from “his injuries.”

Trump spoke from the Diplomatic Room of the White House about what he termed a “very, very, very brutal assault.”

Charles Orear, 50, a restaurant manager from St. Louis, said in an interview Wednesday that he became friendly with Hodgkinson during their work together in Iowa on Sanders’s presidential campaign. Orear said Hodgkinson was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Orear said when told by phone about the shooting.

Orear described Hodgkinson as a “quiet guy” who was “very mellow, very reserved” when they stayed overnight at the home of a Sanders supporter in Rock Island, Ill., after canvassing for the Vermont senator.

“He was this union tradesman, pretty stocky, and we stayed up talking politics,” he said. “He was more on the really progressive side of things.”

When informed that the suspect’s Facebook page prominently features Sanders’s image, the senator’s spokesman, Michael Briggs, said:

“Our prayers go out for a full recovery of Rep. Scalise, the congressional aides and police officers who were injured. We’ve got to stop the violence.”

Lord Jim wrote:

What battle, if there is a battle it is one sided

If it's "one-sided" then I really don't understand why you felt the need to make that comment...

Suspect in congressional baseball shooting now dead



The suspected shooter in today's incident in Virginia is 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

President Donald Trump announced this morning during remarks about the shooting that the suspect is now dead.

"The assailant has now died from his injuries," Trump said, not using Hodgkinson's name.

Hodgkinson's wife told ABC News that her husband had been living in Alexandria, Virginia, for the past two months. Hodgkinson left his job as a "home inspector, mold/air quality tester," according to his Facebook page.

Hodgkinson has an extensive history of traffic violations and petty offenses in St. Clair County, Illinois, spanning from 1989 to 2011, according to online county court records.

The vast majority of the cases are traffic violations and nearly all of them were later dismissed. The most recent conviction on his record was for a “petty offense” of failure to obtain an electrical contractor’s license in 2009.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-congre ... d=48032649

This photo found by NBC:

NBC News360 × 360Search by image
In this undated file photo, James Hodgkinson holds a sign during a protest outside of a United States Post Office in Belleville, Ill.

strongly suggests that there may have been a political motivation involved...

Now that the shooter is dead, the police will probably be more forthcoming with information, since they don't have to worry about jeopardizing a court case.

Sue U wrote: This was apparently wholly unrelated to the shooting, just someone else passing by asking who was on the field. But DeSantis and Fux Newz have now turned this wild speculation into wingnuttosphere fact that the gunman was hunting Republicans. Completely irresponsible and reprehensible.

what I do see in this nation, not necessarily related here, is an escalation of political hatred and mostly, to me, it appears to be coming from the left.