A gunman shot four people, including Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), at a baseball field in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday as Republican congressmen were practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. The shooter was pronounced dead at a hospital after a gun battle with police.

2,000 FT.

Eugene Simpson

Stadium Park

ALEXANDRIA

Md.

D.C.

Braddock Road

Metro Station

Va.

Detail

OLD TOWN

Witnesses placed the shooter outside the field around third base and home plate as shots were fired.

Windows shattered

at YMCA Alexandria

Third base

Home plate

Car windows shattered

Witnesses placed the shooter outside the field around third base and home plate as shots were fired.

Third base

Windows shattered

at YMCA Alexandria

Home plate

Car windows shattered

Witnesses placed the shooter outside the field around third base and home plate as shots were fired.

Third base

Home plate

Car windows shattered

Windows shattered

at YMCA Alexandria

In addition to Scalise, who was in critical condition Wednesday night, the gunman shot a lobbyist, a congressional aide and a Capitol Police special agent who was a member of Scalise’s security detail. Another Capitol Police agent sustained a minor injury and Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.) injured his ankle diving into a dugout. The shooter was James T. Hodgkinson of Illinois.

According to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was in a batting cage along the right-field line when shooting began at 7:02 a.m., the shooter shot once, then fired 50 to 60 more shots. Two Capitol Police officers, who are members of Scalise’s security detail and had been positioned behind the first-base dugout, began firing back at him. They were soon joined by Alexandria police. Witnesses said the shooter moved outside a chain-link fence along the third-base side until police pinned him down.

[Map: Where the GOP baseball team was when the shooting began]

4

3

1

2

5

The shooter began firing from behind the fence.

He moved toward home plate and back toward the dugout.

1

The shooter aimed

at Rep. Trent Kelly at third base, but missed.

2

Rep. Steve Scalise was shot in the hip at second base and crawled to the outfield.

3

A staffer was shot in the leg and ran to the first-base dugout.

4

The Capitol Police, initially stationed behind the first-base dugout, pinned the shooter face-down on the pavement behind the third-base dugout.

5

Sen. Rand Paul was in a batting cage. Two staffers lay down in right field, then one hopped the fence, and he and Paul ran behind a tree.

A staffer was

shot in the leg and ran to the first-base dugout.

The shooter missed Rep. Trent Kelly at third base.

The shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, began firing from behind the fence.

He moved toward home plate and back toward the dugout.

Rep. Steve Scalise was shot at second base and crawled to the outfield.

Some players temporarily took cover behind the first-base dugout.

The Capitol Police, initially stationed behind the first-base dugout, pinned the shooter face-down on the pavement behind the third-base dugout.

A staffer was

shot in the leg and ran to the first-base dugout.

Sen. Rand Paul was in a batting cage. Two staffers lay down in right field, then one hopped the fence, and he and Paul ran behind a tree.

The shooter aimed

at Rep. Trent Kelly at third base, but missed.

Rep. Steve Scalise was shot at second base and crawled to the outfield.

The shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, began firing from behind the fence. He moved toward home plate and back toward the dugout.

Some players temporarily took cover behind the first-base dugout.

The Capitol Police, initially stationed behind the first-base dugout, pinned the shooter face-down on the pavement behind the third-base dugout.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who was standing along the first-base line when shooting began before running into the dugout, said he didn’t hear the gunman speak. “There was a lot of yelling around, but I couldn’t tell what was what. For a while, there in the dugout, when a security detail opened fire I didn’t know if that was friendly fire or not. He was using our dugout as kind of shelter to fire on the gunman. And I kept yelling: ‘Are you friendly? Are you friendly?’ And he yelled back: ‘Yes.’”

[Hodgkinson, the suspect in shooting at congressional ballgame practice, had posted anti-Trump rhetoric on social media]

“I was very fortunate.”

— Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.)

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

“I was very fortunate.”

— Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.)

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

“We didn’t know exactly where all the shots were firing from and whether or not it was only one shooter,” said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.). “I had to walk right past him when I walked past third base to left field and he just decided not to shoot me.”

[The Congressional Baseball Game has been ‘a great bipartisan tradition’ for 100 years]

Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.) told a Detroit radio station, “I was standing at home plate and he was in the third base line. 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.”

“It was bedlam.”

— Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

“It was bedlam.”

— Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

[Lawmaker Steve Scalise injured in GOP baseball shooting; suspect James T. Hodgkinson dies after shootout]

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) was stepping up to bat at home plate when the shooting began. Brooks said he ran behind a batting cage, then into the first-base dugout. “Once we got the all clear that the shooter was down, we went out to the outfield for Steve Scalise, he had crawled out in the outfield leaving a trail of blood.”

The shooting occurred at a recreational area in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood that includes a baseball field, basketball court, soccer fields and a dog park. The park shares a parking lot with a YMCA, where gunfire shattered windows. A witness said a bullet landed in the pool.

Joe Miscavige was at the YMCA that shares a parking lot with the baseball field. He tweeted photos of broken windows at the facility. (AP)

Witness Owen Britton said two bullets went through a window in the pool area. (AP)

The FBI identified the shooter’s weapons as a 9mm handgun and a 7.62-caliber rifle, and said it appeared that Hodgkinson had legally purchased both guns.

The victims

Steve Scalise

Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.)

Mike Mika

Matt Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods

Zachary Barth, a legislative correspondent for
Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.)

Capitol Police special agent David Bailey

Capitol Police special agent Crystal Griner was also injured. United States Capitol Police Chief Matthew R. Verderosa said Griner was shot in the ankle, and was in good condition on Wednesday afternoon. Verderosa also said Bailey sustained a minor injury and has already been released from the hospital.

Scalise, who was shot once in the hip, suffered organ damage and severe bleeding and underwent immediate surgery, according to a news release from MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He will require additional surgeries, the release said.

Mika was in critical condition on Wednesday afternoon, according to a George Washington Hospital spokeswoman. Barth was shot but is expected to make a full recovery.

[Duels, assassination plots, KKK attacks: Members of Congress who have been shot]

Correction: A previous version of this story referred to Rand Paul and Jeff Flake as representatives. They are both senators.

About this story

Sources: Pictometry International, maps4news.com/here, staff reports. Graphic: Bonnie Berkowitz, Darla Cameron, Laris Karklis, Kevin Schaul, Kim Soffen, Aaron Steckleberg, Aaron Williams and Emily Yount.

Originally published June 14, 2017.

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