Shortly after 7 a.m. on Wednesday, a shooter opened fire in Alexandria, Virginia at a baseball practice ahead of the annual congressional baseball game, which is scheduled for Thursday night.
@nbcwashington massive police presence after shooting at Congressional baseball team practice in Alexandria pic.twitter.com/WCDSjmtg9d
— Woody (@FlyDTW) June 14, 2017
ALERT: APD investigating multiple shooting 400 block E Monroe St. Suspect believed in custody. Stay from area, let emergency vehicles thru.
— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) June 14, 2017
Fox News confirmed that among the victims were House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and his aides.
BREAKING NEWS: House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, aides shot at baseball practice in Virginia, Fox News confirms. https://t.co/IWK3lMJ8r5 pic.twitter.com/IITisO3LzF
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 14, 2017
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who was at the practice and witnessed the shooting, shared his account of what happened with reporters.
Text from Mo Brooks, who was at the congressional baseball game practice. pic.twitter.com/gRVj8YjTIU
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) June 14, 2017
Rep. Mo Brooks on CNN now: says he was on deck at practice, hears gunshots. Says he saw a rifle. Heard Scalise screaming. He was shot.
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) June 14, 2017
Brooks subsequently told CNN that Scalise was “dragging his body” away from the infield of the ball field after he was shot. He said the shooter, who appeared to be a middle-aged white man, opened fire from behind a dugout and injured roughly five people, including two members of a security detail and Scalise.
“I heard Steve Scalise scream. He was shot,” Brooks said, adding that he believes the suspect was shot by a Capitol Police officer.
Mo Brooks says that the suspect was shot by a Capitol Police officer who had himself been shot.
— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) June 14, 2017
ABC later reported that Scalise’s injury isn’t life-threatening, while Reuters reported that two Capitol Hill police officers who were shot are in stable condition.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) — a physician — tells me HE TREATED SCALISE at the scene… that Scalise was "conscious and okay."
— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) June 14, 2017
Scalise’s office later released a statement saying Scalise underwent surgery for a wound to his hip but “was in good spirits.”
Scalise statement pic.twitter.com/uCb6KJ15Sa
— Stefan Becket (@becket) June 14, 2017
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was at the practice as well. After the shooting, he called Fox News and said that while he was getting in a car to leave, “There was a guy who walked up to us that was asking whether there was Republican or Democrats out there and it was just a little odd, and then he kinda walked toward the area where all of this happened.”
Rep. DeSantis who at baseball practice recalls: “A guy…walked up to us that was asking whether it was Republicans or Democrats out there.” pic.twitter.com/GwozCPRdve
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 14, 2017
DeSantis added, however, that he wasn’t sure if the man who walked up to him was the shooter, and there are conflicting reports about what the shooter was wearing.
This inconsistency seems like it could be important. It's better not to believe every scrap of information as 100% true immediately. pic.twitter.com/xGsu7avFmu
— Alan Cole (@AlanMCole) June 14, 2017
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told ABC he was on the field when he heard a “burst of gunfire.” During an earlier interview on MSNBC, Paul said, “Everybody probably would have died except for the fact that the Capitol Police were there” because of Scalise’s leadership status.
Rand Paul said of the Capitol Police: “Had they not been there it would have been a massacre,” @peteralexander reports pic.twitter.com/JO18AxR0Ho
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 14, 2017
One member of Congress told a HuffPost reporter that he may have spoken with the shooter before shots rang out.
Rep. Jeff Duncan tells me he is alright. He left just before the shooting, but may have possibly spoken to the shooter.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) June 14, 2017
Alexandria police report that the gunman is in custody. The shooting appears to be a “deliberate attack,” CNN reported, citing both congressional and law enforcement sources.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told reporters that two members of Scalise’s security detail were shot, including an African-American man who was “shot in the leg.”
“I believe he’s the one that brought the shooter down,” Flake said. “He ran around for quite a while with a leg wound returning fire.”
The coach of the Republican baseball team, Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX), released a statement indicating a member of his staff was shot.
Office of Rep. Roger Williams releases statement saying he was not shot, but one of his staffers was shot and is receiving medical attention pic.twitter.com/h2Jv2qwUK3
— Rebecca Shabad (@RebeccaShabad) June 14, 2017
Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI) told a Detroit radio station that “a gunman walked up to the fence line and just began to shoot.”
“I was standing at home plate and he was in the third base line,” Bishop continued. “He had a rifle that was clearly meant for the job of taking people out, multiple casualties, and he had several rounds and magazines that he kept unloading and reloading.”
“He was coming around the fence line and he was looking for all of us who had found cover in different spots,” Bishop added. “But if we didn’t have return fire right there, he would have come up to each one of us and shot us point-blank.”
President Trump released a statement about the incident.
.@POTUS statement pic.twitter.com/2pFZEYB0FL
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) June 14, 2017
Trump also updated Scalise’s condition on Twitter.
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a true friend and patriot, was badly injured but will fully recover. Our thoughts and prayers are with him.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2017
While most elected officials steered clear of attempting to turn breaking news about the shooting into a partisan issue, Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told a Buffalo radio station, “I can only hope that the Democrats do tone down the rhetoric.”
.@RepChrisCollins"The rhetoric has been outrageous, the finger-pointing, just the tone and the angst and the anger directed at Donald Trump.
— Jerry Zremski (@JerryZremski) June 14, 2017
.@ChrisCollins: "Really, then, you know, some people react to things like that. They get angry as well. And then you fuel the fires."
— Jerry Zremski (@JerryZremski) June 14, 2017
Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, linked the shooting with New York’s Public Theater’s controversial production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” — a play meant to illustrate the futility of political violence.
As of 11 a.m., authorities haven’t confirmed any details about the assailant or his motivations, though the Washington Post reports his name is James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois. Hodgkinson appears to have posted anti-Trump posts on his Facebook page.
During a statement issued just after 11:30 a.m., President Trump announced that the gunman died from his injuries.