2 hero cops prevented a massacre
‘NOTHING WE COULD ARREST HIM FOR’
came around the same time that he was afoul of local cops for shooting his high-powered hunting rifle in the woods near his home.
Neighbors complained about the March 24 gunplay after Hodgkinson squeezed off a reported 50 shots into the pine trees. Since he had a valid gun license, the cops left after warning him to holster his weapon.
St. Clair County Sheriff Rick Watson recalls the entire encounter as “very cordial.”
“There was nothing we could arrest him for, and there was no indication that he was mentally ill or going to harm anybody,” Watson said. “The only thing I was concerned about was that it was such a highpowered gun, and that somebody could possibly get hurt.”
Hodgkinson ran his own home inspection company, JTH Inspections, for more than 20 years, according to the Better Business Bureau.
But records show he let his inspection license lapse in November without a renewal.
During his years in town, Hodgkinson amassed an extensive rap sheet. St. Clair County records show arrests for eluding police, resisting a peace officer, criminal damage to property, driving under the influence and failing to obtain electrical permits.
He was handcuffed after an April Fool’s Day 2006 domestic abuse incident where the angry dad allegedly dragged his high school daughter by the hair in a fight at a neighbor’s house.
When threatened the to daughter’s call the friend cops, Hodgkinson allegedly punched her in the face. He was also charged with pulling a shotgun on his daughter’s boyfriend.
Widel described Hodgkinson’s wife, Sue, as a pleasant neighbor during his time in Belleville. She worked at a local accounting firm.
“I met her three or four times,” he said. “She’s super friendly.”
Hodgkinson, in contrast, kept raging online until his violent death at the hands of law enforcement.
One day before the shooting, he posted a final Facebook status: A cartoon meme about how corporations write bills and “then bribe Congress until it becomes law.”
He added a comment: “That’s Exactly How It Works ..... ” SEN. BERNIE SANDERS on Wednesday repudiated any and all associations with the gunman in the Alexandria baseball field shooting — an avid supporter of his 2016 presidential campaign. The Vermont senator said he was “sickened” by the shooting and condemned the act as “despicable.” “I have just been informed that the alleged shooter at the Republican baseball practice is someone who apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign. I am sickened by this despicable act,” Sanders said in a statement. “Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms. “Real change can only come about through nonviolent action,” he said. WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers who survived the rampage at an early-morning baseball practice say it would have been a massacre if not for a pair of Capitol Ppolice officers.
Crystal Griner and David Bailey, at the practice because they’re on the security detail of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), returned fire when a man began shooting up the field.
Bailey (photo inset) an unspecified injury and Griner was shot in the ankle — but both still fired back at the gunman.
Law enforcement officials didn’t say who fired the fatal shot, but witness Jeff Flake, a Republican senator from Arizona, said it was Griner who took down the shooter, James Hodgkinson.
Flake later visited both officers in the local hospital where they were being treated, and said he “thanked them for saving my life.”
Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.), choking back tears, called the pair “what’s right with America” during an afternoon news conference.
“We saw two people risk their lives to save the lives of others. We saw courage in the face of death,” he continued. “There could have easily been 25 deaths or more today.”
The officers drew the shooter’s attention away from the congressmen, many of whom huddled for safety in the first base dugout.
Williams said he and his staffer both dived for cover in the dugout after the staffer was injured. As they held each other, Flake made a tourniquet from his belt to stop the staffer’s bleeding.
The officers, both 32, are veterans of the force who joined Scalise’s security detail after having worked to protect then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) before he lost his seat in the House in 2014.
Bailey has worked as a Capitol officer for just shy of a decade, according to his LinkedIn page. suffered