Washington – A gunman acted alone when he shot and wounded a top House Republican and four other people on a northern Virginia baseball field, the FBI said Wednesday.
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Tim Slater, who leads the criminal division of the FBI’s Washington field office, also said during a news conference that James T. Hodgkinson did not have any ties to terrorism.
Rep. Steve Scalise, 51, the House majority whip, was gravely wounded in the shooting June 14.. He has undergone several surgeries and remains hospitalized. His condition has been upgraded to serious.
Scalise and other congressional Republicans were practicing for their annual charity baseball game against Democrats when the gunman started shooting. U.S. Capitol Police and other officers returned fire and killed Hogdkinson, an unemployed home inspector with a deep animus toward President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
Hodgkinson, 66, was from Belleville, Illinois, and had volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. For months before the shooting, he had been living out of his van in the Washington area, with more than 200 rounds of ammunition among the belongings he kept in a storage unit, Slater said.
He said authorities found a laptop computer, a cell phone and a digital camera in Hodgkinson’s car but an analysis of the items showed that he did not place any online posts of threats or references to lawmakers or the baseball game.
Hodgkinson had a list of six members of Congress on him, Slater said, but there was no indication that he intended to target them. He declined to say whether the people on the list were Republicans or at the baseball practice. Hodgkinson had been in email contact with the two Democratic senators from Illinois, he said.
Both the rifle and handgun Hodgkinson was carrying were purchased legally through federal firearms licenses, the FBI said. The rifle was modified to accept a detachable magazine and the original stock was replaced with a folding stock. Hodgkinson bought the guns in April, after Trump was elected, Slater said.
Slater said authorities have not yet determined a motive and the FBI probe continues.
“He was known to have an anger management problem,” Slater said at a news conference, adding later that Hodgkinson was on medication and “struggling” in a number of ways, including a difficult personal life.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that Scalise “is on the road to recovery” but it will take some time. The bullet entered the congressman’s hip and shattered blood vessels, bones and internal organs, leaving him at imminent risk of death, doctors have said.
Agreed he acted alone. And I can in know way call this a terror attack although according to yoansonw’s tight definition it is one. However, loosely speaking its not a terror attack just a madman gone wild.
That being said the rhetoric by the left entices these nut jobs. When Brian Leherer compares Trump to a Hitler regime and when its OK for a broadway performance in central park to produce a mock Julies Ceaser Trump murder it encourages violence.
But wait didn’t Trump say to knock a protester out by a rally? Firstly, that’s wrong too and two wrongs don’t make a right. In fact the democrates are suppose to be the “educated voters” and the more cultured ones vs the Trump red necks. Secondly, it was a spur of the moment knee jerk reaction to someone annoying in your face. It wasn’t some premeditated thing like a broadway show. Thirdly, punching or pushing someone is not the same as validating murder.
We cannot legislate ideas or thoughts, and this criminal is entitled to his thoughts and feelings. The crime exited from the mental to the actual with this fellow. But incitement is also a crime, and it deserves to be prosecuted. The rhetoric violates free speech (granted, there is a lot of grey area in this complex situation) by telling people that this is a just cause. I may dislike the political debate of some, but advocating for murder is never okay. But that is exactly what the left is obsessed with today, and much of the MSM. It is time for government to get serious about what truly violates the Bill of Rights.