Scalise Shooter Identified
Congressman Scalise’s assailant has been identified as James T. Hodgkinson, of Belleville, Illinois. Hodgkinson was wounded during the shooting by officers returning fire. The shooter was taken to a near by hospital and is being treated for his wounds.
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.”
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.
“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’s 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.”
Hodgkinson was among those taken to a hospital Wednesday. FBI special agent in charge Tim Slater said at a news conference that he did not know the condition of the suspected shooter.
Hodgkinson was a licensed home inspector in Illinois according to public records, but his license lapsed last November. A web page on Yelp indicates that Hodgkinson has been doing home inspections since 1994, and has 30 years experience in construction and remodeling as a general contractor, and that he worked in both Missouri and Illinois. Belleville is a suburb of St. Louis
Hodgkinson reportedly opened fire on a group of Congressmen and their staff as they practiced for a congressional baseball game, wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and a staff member of Rep. Patrick Williams, as well as two Capitol Police officers assigned to protect Scalise.
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
