There was so much gunfire, you couldn’t get up and run
A lone gunman opened fire on Republican members of the congressional baseball team at a practice field in a Washington suburb Wednesday, using a rifle to shower the field with bullets that struck five people, including Steve Scalise, the majority whip of the House of Representatives.
The first I knew of it was a Facebook post by a friend wondering wtf just happened in the park a block from where he lives. A torrent of gunfire, it sounded like. It turned out that’s exactly what it was.
The suspect was killed.
Law enforcement authorities identified him as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, from Belleville, Ill., a suburb of St. Louis.
Two members of Mr. Scalise’s protective police detail were wounded as they exchanged gunfire with the gunman in what other lawmakers described as a chaotic, terror-filled ten minutes that turned the baseball practice into an early-morning nightmare. The police said two of the five people were critically wounded.
That’s what my friend heard. Not a joke, not a hoax, not practice with blanks.
The authorities said the Capitol Police and local officers arrived minutes after they received desperate calls for help from those under siege at the field. The F.B.I. said the bureau would take the lead in the investigation, treating it as an assault on a federal officer.
Witnesses described a man with white hair and a beard wielding a long gun standing behind the dugout.
“He was hunting us at that point,” said Representative Mike Bishop, Republican of Michigan, who was standing at home plate when the shooting began at 7:09 a.m.
Mr. Bishop said the gunman had seemed to be “double-tapping” the trigger of his weapon. “There was so much gunfire, you couldn’t get up and run,” he said. “Pop, pop, pop, pop — it’s a sound I’ll never forget.”
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who was among the lawmakers practicing for an annual charity baseball game Thursday, told CNN that “the field was basically a killing field — it’s really sick and very sad.”
Hodgkinson was a Sanders supporter.
On the eve of his 100th day in office, President Donald Trump used a speech at the National Rifle Association to help renew his standing among a conservative base that’s wary after watching the President reverse course on a series of campaign promises.
Trump declared that an “eight-year assault” on gun ownership rights had come to a “crashing end” with his election.
I wonder if Alex Jones will be saying this was a conspiracy by people who want stricter gun laws.
You reap what you sow… Not all left wingers are squishy bleeding hearts.
The shooting is a travesty but not surprising. And remember, the killing field will be in the public arena after the new health ca- I can’t type the word-bill, whatever its final form, is passed.