US lawmaker, 4 others shot at in Virginia

US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IN A TELEVISED ADDRESS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCED THE SHOOTER HAS DIED

WASHINGTON: A top Republican lawmaker and several congressional aides were injured when a gunman sprayed bullets on them as they practised for an annual baseball game in a Washington suburb in what reports said appeared to be a “deliberate attack”.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, 51, was shot in the hip during the practice at a field in Alexandria, Virginia by the yetto-be-identified rifle-wielding man, who was shot dead by the police. Scalise’s aides said the congressman was stable.

He was first elected to Congress in 2008, after serving as a member of the Louisiana state legislature for more than a decade.

A second congressman Roger Williams was also injured, but it was unclear if he was shot or injured in some other way.

“Five people were transported medically from the scene,” Alexandria police chief Michael Brown told reporters.

The gunman was shot at by the police, apprehended and taken to a hospital. Later US President Donald Trump in a televised address from the White House announced the shooter has died.

He also praised the Capitol Police. “Many lives would have been lost, if not for the heroic actions of the two Capitol police officers who took down the gunman despite sustaining gunshot wounds during a very, very brutal assault.”