Gunman left trail of anti- GOP activity
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — The gunman who shot a top Republican congressman and two others Wednesday during baseball practice outside the nation’s capital had a long history of lashing out at Republicans and recently frightened a neighbor by firing a rifle toward houses from a field behind his Illinois home.
James T. Hodgkinson, 66, wounded House Rep. Steve Scalise before he was fatally shot by police who had been guarding the House majority whip.
In the hours after the attack in Alexandria, Virginia, a picture began to emerge of a shooter with a mostly minor arrest record who worked as a home inspector and despised the Republican Party; in fact, he was a member of a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party” and signed an online petition calling for the president to be impeached, posting it on Facebook with a chilling comment: “It’s time to destroy Trump & co.”
His brother, Michael Hodgkinson, said James Hodgkinson traveled in recent weeks to Washington to protest. “I know he wasn’t happy with the way things were going, the election results and stuff,” Michael Hodgkinson said in an interview shortly after he received the news on Wednesday. He said he had not been close to his brother and he had not been aware of why he remained in Washington.
James Hodgkinson also appeared to have been a fervent fan of Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to a Facebook page with references to the Vermont senator. His LinkedIn page had a profile photo showing Sanders’s famous hair and glasses and the words, “The Dawn of a New Democracy.”
In a statement Wednesday morning, Sanders said he had been told the suspect had volunteered for his presidential campaign. He offered his “hopes and prayers” for the shooting victims.
“I am sickened by this despicable act,” Sanders said. “Let me be as clear as I can be. 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.”
Until recently, Hodgkinson ran a home-inspection business out of his house in southern Illinois. Authorities believe Hodgkinson had been in the Alexandria area since March, living out of a cargo van and not working, FBI agent Tim Slater said.