Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Wednesday June 14 2017, @04:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-baseball-jokes dept.

A gunman opened fire at U.S. Congressmen and others who were gathered at a practice this morning for the Congressional Baseball Game. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and at least four others were reportedly injured. The gunman, who has been identified by unnamed sources as James T. Hodgkinson III, was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries:

A gunman unleashed a barrage of gunfire Wednesday at a park in Alexandria, Va., as Republican members of Congress held a morning baseball practice, wounding at least five people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (La.).

The suspected gunman is James T. Hodgkinson III, 66, from Illinois, according to multiple law enforcement sources. President Trump announced that the gunman, who was wounded in a shootout with officers, has died at an area hospital.

The wounded also included two Capitol Police officers and a congressional aide, according to one law enforcement official and witness accounts.

Congressman Scalise was shot in the hip and is in stable condition.

Hodgkinson's motive may have already been identified by the media:

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."

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 campaign. Orear said Hodgkinson was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others.

Also at LA Times, Reuters, The Atlantic, The Hill, and CNN.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @05:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @05:03PM (#525512)

    Here you go everyone, this is human nature at work. Violence begets violence, and everyone moves to the more extreme edges of their personal beliefs. I am a little shocked but I really shouldn't be surprised that Trump's rhetoric of hate has actually impacted those who oppose him as well.

    It takes real effort to deal with these emotions. Self reflection and a conscious choice to avoid hatred is a real thing. You can let the hatred grow, relishing the emotional high of righteous anger, but that is exactly what got us where we are now. Conservatives have been played for decades, their anger stoked by masterful propaganda. You can already see the propaganda rolling now, the last two "liberal" attackers have been immediately correlated with Sanders. It is a two-for-one, no longer are conservatives the only ones who get truly violent and they are correlated with Sanders who would probably have a landslide victory in 2020. But now his name is being tied to terrorist attacks, so all the moderate conservatives will subconsciously recoil back to the right.

    It is almost as if there is a concerted effort to stoke internal conflict to weaken the US. Uh oh, here comes the "C" word.