Gunman opens fire on US lawmakers, hits senior Republican

WASHINGTON (NEWS 1130) – The man who shot a US Congressman and three others during a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia has died of his injuries.

President Donald Trump says the shooter, identified as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois, died from his injuries after being arrested.

A shooter blasted dozens of rounds at a gathering of Republican lawmakers practicing for their annual baseball game against Democrats, spraying bullets across the field from his vantage point along the third-base line.

Senior congressional Republican Steve Scalise was hit in the leg. MedStar Washington said in a tweet that he “was critically injured and remains in critical condition.”

Witnesses said the tragic scene could have been unfathomably worse, if not for Capitol Hill police on the scene who exchanged fire with the gunman.

The ensuing chaos drew about 100 police officers from different departments within minutes, according to witnesses, and helicopters swooped in to airlift the injured from the baseball field in suburban Alexandria, Va., outside Washington.

“Our lives were saved by the Capitol Hill police. Had they not been there it would’ve been a massacre,” Sen. Rand Paul told Fox News of the scene he witnessed.

“You are completely helpless. Having no self-defence and no way to get to somebody. The field was basically a killing field. If you were to run out there while the shooter was still shooting.”

He told another interviewer that everyone there faced a life-and-death, split-second dilemma: Stay where they were, or scurry for safety in the outfield or the dugout and risk becoming easy targets in an open field.

LISTEN: President Donald Trump’s public address following the shooting

 

Another Republican described how people fled to the dugout. They huddled in terror, not knowing whether the gunman might move in their direction and pin them down in an enclosed area.

“We didn’t know if there were other shooters that had us surrounded and would come into the dugout,” Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake told reporters on the scene.

“We didn’t know whether to run.”

Congressman Mo Brooks said he was on deck, preparing to bat, when the shooting started. He saw a rifle near third base. Then he said he suddenly saw Scalise bleeding, crawling into the outfield.

He said there were easily 50 shots fired.

Scalise is the No. 3 House Republican leader. He was first elected to the House in 2008 after serving in the state legislature.

 

Political rivals expressed their own horror at what unfolded.

Democrats preparing at their own baseball practice prayed for their Republican colleagues when news broke. California congressman Pete Aguilar tweeted: “My heart is heavy right now. We just said a prayer for our colleagues and are holding to leave Dem baseball practice.”

The incident instantly brought to mind another American political shooting.

The victim of that shooting, Gabrielle Giffords, is no longer in Congress and has waged a years-long struggle to recover. The Arizona Democrat responded to the news on Twitter: “My heart is with my former colleagues, their families (and) staff.”

She called the Capitol police public servants and heroes.