Congress shooter James Hodgkinson's anger against the establishment was fueled after he was fired for attempting to pilfer official documents, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The gunman who went berserk at the Republican baseball practice session with a rifle gunning down five people including majority whip Steve Scalise, had harbored deep grudges against officials after he was banned from working for his local county.

He attempted to steal papers from the desk of an official employed by St. Clair County at its offices in Belleville. She caught him red-handed.

He defended his action by claiming he was looking for a pay check due to him for work he had been carrying out on behalf of a private contractor for the local authority as a housing inspector.

He had had arrived at the authority's offices hours before staff came in and denied he had been attempting to steal when apprehended.

Was a contraction: Home inspector James Hodgkinson was terminated by his local Democratic controlled county in 2003 for stealing from a female official's desk

Happened here: Hodgkinson turned up hours early at the department of intergovernmental grants, at one of St. Clair County's buildings in Belleville, and was caught red-handed

Arrests: Although he faced no police action for the thefts, Hodgkinson had repeated encounters with law enforcement, with an arrest in 2006 and one in 1992 (right) detailed in mugshots

The female employee reported the incident to senior management and after an investigation, he was dismissed as a contractor for 'unacceptable behavior' and denied any further work by the contractor and barred from county offices.

The incident, which happened in 2003 at the St. Clair County Intergovernmental Grants Department offices, was not reported to police.

He was able to re-apply for his contractor's license in 2012, but he did not return the necessary paperwork for his reinstatement and made no further contact with the department.

It was meant no criminal charges were laid against the extreme left winger who was killed in a shoot-out in Virginia after his gun spree.

But the FBI are now investigating whether it led to a decade of resentment by the firebrand political activist whose simmering anger resulted in him traveling to Virginia and unleashing his gun attack on political rivals.

The FBI is leading the investigation into how the portly and diminutive senior citizen traveled from the mid-west to carry out his gun attack and agents have not yet managed to confirm that his political leanings were totally behind the attack.

His resentment towards officialdom after his firing is among the possible causes being examined.

St. Clair County Sheriff Richard Watson, who was trained at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, said of his motivation: 'Nobody really knows. People are just speculating.

'The FBI are digging into his past and into places where he actually shot and stuff like that and into his friends.

'The Feds are trying to dig into his psyche. They don't really know right now.

Examined: FBI agents have been going over every aspect of Hodgkinson's life for clues about what turned him into a gunman, including at his comfortable two-story home

Puzzlement: Suzanne Hodgkinson, the shooter's wife, said she had no explanation for what he had done. Their marriage had been over in recent months and the FBI also examined a trailer on their property, suggesting he had been living there

Speaking out: Deputy Sheriff Richard Wagner said the FBI were looking at 'everything' in the shooter's background. Neighbor Carmen Schaumleffel called the police on March 24 because James Hopkinson was shooting his rifle into her cornfield

'Who was he hanging around with? Where was he going to shoot? The FBI are going to be looking at everything about his life.'

The Sheriff said that despite the shooters series of run-ins with police, particularly over shooting his rifle in his yard, he always appeared 'cordial' with officers.

The 5.6 carpenter lived comfortably with his wife Suzanne in a two story house surrounded by sprawling corn fields, pecan trees and flower beds.

He liked to walk his German Shepherd dog and each year threw a Halloween party for neighbors with food served on his lawn.

The shooter, who liked to be known by his middle name Tom, used to be seen cutting his lawn with the aid of a tractor mower as his dog ran behind.

Belleville boy: Hodgkinson had lived and worked in the Illinois town all his life and graduated from Belleville West High School in 1968, where he had been a wrestler

He was one of three children and grew up in Belleville, graduating from Belleville West High School in 1968.

In 1976 he began his company JTH Construction and a billboard outside his home says he was 'Ashi certified' which meant he was qualified by the American Society of Home Inspectors.

His work mainly focused on home inspection and air quality testing. But he closed the business six months ago and went into retirement.

James Hogkinson took in Wanda Ashley Stock (above ) in 1996 as a foster daughter

His friend and neighbor Fred Widel said: 'I hear guns around here all the time. Sixty rounds here and there as it's a rural area.

'I never heard him shooting. But he was friendly. He would invite us to his Halloween party every year.

'Last year it was cancelled because his wife was injured after her finger got caught in the door.'

Another neighbor Carmen Schaumleffel, who called the police in March to report Hodgkinson discharging his rifle in his yard, said: 'It is a small neighborhood, but he would never acknowledge us. He would go along the lane and would never wave or anything.

Suzanne Hodgkinson, his wife, spoke out Thursday night about .

She is helping the FBI as a witness to help agents piece together her husbands' behavior before he left home and what contact she had with him.

He was said to have told his family that he missed his wife and dogs after two months away and was planning to return to his Illinois home.

The couple were once a fosters parent to two teenage girls - one of whom committed suicide.

They brought Wanda Ashley Stock into their home back in the summer of 1996, enrolling the young girl at the nearby Belleville East High School.

Two months into the school year however, the 17-year-old committed suicide in a painful and gruesome manner, dousing her body in gasoline and then lighting herself on fire as she sat in her car on the side of the road.

She was pronounced dead at the scene on October 23, 1996.

Aftermath: The gunman opened fire shortly after 7am on Wednesday morning, firing round after round from his legally-held rifle. It left a black SUV riddled with bullets - and five people down

Still critical: Rep Steve Scalise was shot and his condition remains critical after three surgeries on the wound to his hip.

In an interview with the Belleville-News Democrat soon after the incident, the Hodgkinson described the young woman as a 'very practical, level-headed girl.'

Wanda was born in 1979 and taken in by the state of Illinois five years later, spending the rest of her life in the foster system.

Five years after that, in 1989, her mother and father terminated their parental rights, and she floated around from home to home until ending up with the Hodgkinsons in 1996.

It was not until after Wanda's death that the Hodgkinsons learned that the teenager had previously attempted to commit suicide.

She had also allegedly been upset at the time following a break-up with her boyfriend.

A note was found in her bedroom shortly after her death in which Ashley asked that all her belongings and inheritance be given to a friend.

It was just six years after that when the Hodgkinsons took in Cathy Lynn Putnam, becoming the legal guardians for the young girl.

The 12-year-old was the couple's grand-niece who had been with them for eight years at that time, and the three became so close that she eventually took 'Hodgkinson' as her last name.

That relationship soured however by 2006 after a domestic assault incident, during which Hodgkinson walked into a neighbor's home with a gun and punched a 19-year-old woman who was friends with his daughter in the face.

He then pointed his gun at another person in the house, which led to him getting cuffed and dragged away from the property by police.

This all allegedly occurred while Cathy was trying to flee the scene and go out with her friend according to a police report, which stated that Hodgkinson had ripped out his niece's hair as she tried to drive off in her car.

Hodgkinson also discharged his gun at some point.

He was charged with battery with intent to cause bodily harm and causing damage to a motor vehicle in April of that year following the incident.

The case was eventually dismissed in court.

US Capitol Police said on Thursday the 9 mm handgun and 7.62 caliber rifle believed to have been used by Hodkinson to shoot GOP House Whip Steve Scalise and three others as they practiced for a baseball game were purchased legally.

The FBI has also recovered a cell phone, a computer and a camera from the vehicle used by the gunman, who was fatally injured by two members of capitol police during the incident.

Representative Scalise remains in critical condition.