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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.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by justinb_76 on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:37PM (7 children)
"was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice"
uh-huh, I seem to hear that a lot - we go low when they go high! we're tolerant!
let's see, in addition to this morning's escapades, in the past week we've had a 'passionate progressive' "woman" in Harrisburg PA stab a police horse in the neck, and a 'tolerant' individual throw animal urine in Lauren Southern's face. And every time this happens, more and more normal folks are realizing that when people are willing to insult, vilify, intimidate and attack you over your beliefs and/or opinions, you are on the right side of history.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:20PM (4 children)
... or your beliefs or opinions are an affront to what decent people can tolerate and they've been pushed across a line. It can go either way. I'm not saying that this guy was mentally stable, but people do have a limit, even decent people. As an example, if my government started pushing slavery or genocide , that might push me across *my* line, as an example.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:09PM (1 child)
Good grief man, get a hold of reality. A man with a rifle just attempted to murder as many random politicians as he could. His rationale is looking to be 'They're not on the political team I prefer.' This isn't some uprising against heinous crimes against society. People need to get out of their echo chambers - NOW. We live in a democracy. The way you effect change in a democracy is by working together. The way you empower an establishment that is sustained entirely on divide and conquer is by hating, let alone turning to acts of violence, against 'the other side.' Much like Bin Laden gave Bush the biggest gift he could have asked for, this man just gave the republican establishment the greatest gift they could have asked for. Get ready to see a push to criminalize 'radical' speech online. And what qualifies as radical? Well that'll be up to those in power to decide. I'm guessing in any way working as what could be seen as an apologist for a mass murder attempt would probably be pretty high on that list though. And there's no way this new power congress will grant itself could ever end being abused...
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:39PM
The full quote from what I was responding to was
People have a line that when crossed will cause that sort of response. I'm not condoning or apologizing for murder. I'm saying that someone insulting you doesn't put you on the "right side of history". It may simply mean you've crossed the line of decency. I'm responding to the quote, not the original act or article.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @02:57AM (1 child)
You have zero right to take action against people based on your perception of their beliefs or opinions.
When they start taking objectionable actions blast away, but the right to think is inalienable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @06:38AM
I do not condone the shootings, but politicians have done lots of real things that harm people.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:32PM
It really is frustrating seeing history repeat itself over and over and over. It's like people don't realize that damn near every 'evil' in the past was done in the name of some greater good. Reality isn't a Hollywood movie with some blatantly evil character independently engaged in villainy just for the sake of hurting people. People have reasons, and everybody thinks they're the good guy. But indeed, I think it's almost a rule that the group that starts normalizing violence first is invariably the one that history regards with condemnation. It's insane I'm seeing that even here with people saying things like they don't feel bad about this happening, even after previously stating things like the world would be better off with the victims of this attack gone. I wish they could see themselves in isolation without crowds of other idiots similarly normalizing violence making them fail to realize exactly how far away from 'good' that they've fallen.
You want to change things in this country? There are more than 250 million people [wikipedia.org] of voting age in this country. Trump won the election with fewer than 63 million votes. Clinton won the popular vote, but it was equally pathetic at fewer than 66 million. Combined, that leaves 121 million people that chose not to vote for either candidate. Change is easy if you can get even a tiny fraction of people outside the circle jerk to agree with you. But violence? What do you think that is going to achieve?
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:53PM
Why are you putting "woman" in quotes?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"