America was stunned on Wednesday when a gunman opened fire on Republican politicians practising for a charity baseball game near Washington, wounding four people.

The first victim was Steve Scalise, third in line in the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, who was shot in the hip and crawled across the field, leaving a trail of blood, witnesses said.

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The suspect, widely identified as James Hodgkinson, 66, from Belleville, Illinois, and thought to have been armed with a rifle and a handgun, died of injuries sustained when police returned fire.

On Wednesday night, MedStar Washington Hospital, where the Louisiana congressman was listed as in “critical condition”, said that “the bullet travelled across his pelvis, fracturing bones, injuring internal organs, and causing severe bleeding”. The hospital also said that Scalise would “need additional operations”.

Amid reports that the gunman had been politically motivated, Donald Trump led appeals for unity, stating that everyone can agree that we are “blessed to be Americans” and that we are strongest when “we work together for the common good”.

Republicans and Democrats called for bipartisan unity at a time of extraordinary polarisation in the US. Bernie Sanders said he had been informed that the suspect had apparently volunteered for his presidential campaign last year.

“I am sickened by this despicable act,” Sanders said on the Senate floor. “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.”

The shooting took place at about 7am at Eugene Simpson stadium park in an affluent, peaceful neighbourhood of Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac river from Washington DC.

Between 25 and 30 Republican members of the House and Senate had gathered for early morning practice, a day before the annual charity congressional baseball game between Republicans and Democrats.

Mo Brooks, a congressman from Alabama, told CNN: “I was on deck, about to hit batting practice on the third-base side of home plate, and I heard a loud ‘bam’, and I look around and behind third base and the third base dugout, which is cinderblock, I see a rifle. And I see a little bit of a body and I then hear another ‘blam’ and I realise that there’s an active shooter.”



Brooks heard a break in the gunfire, he recalled, and ran across the field to a dugout for better cover. He took off his belt and another congressman applied a tourniquet to stem the bleeding of a staff member wounded in the leg.

Eventually they got word that the gunman was down. “We ran out to second base for Steve Scalise. He had crawled into the outfield, leaving a trail of blood. We started giving him some liquids. I put pressure on the wound in his hip. And Brad Wenstrup, a congressman from Ohio, Cincinnati, fortunately, is a physician. He started doing what you need to do to minimize the blood loss.”

He added: “But for the Capitol police and the heroism they showed, it could very well have been a large-scale massacre. All we would have had would have been baseball bats versus a rifle. Those aren’t good odds.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Hodgkinson, 66, died of his injuries. Photograph: Reuters

Capitol police had only been present because Scalise, the Republican whip, was playing.

“Everyone on that field is a public servant,” Trump said in a measured televised statement. “Our courageous police, our congressional aides, who work so tirelessly behind the scenes with enormous devotion, and our dedicated members of Congress who represent our people.

“Our children deserve to grow up in a nation of safety and peace, and that we are strongest when we are unified, and when we work together for the common good.”

The other individuals receiving medical treatment for gunshot wounds were named as congressional aide Zack Barth and lobbyist Matt Mika. Capitol police officers Krystal Griner and David Bailey were also injured. A joint FBI-ATF statement said one officer was hospitalised and in a stable condition, while the other had been released.

A second congressman, Roger Williams, sprained his ankle.



The congressional baseball game is a summer institution in Washington. Every year, staffers, reporters, lobbyists and interns spend a night combining American politics and America’s pastime. The game pits Democrats versus Republicans in fierce but friendly competition played to benefit charity.

Police and the FBI said it was too early to determine a motive in the shooting or whether the attack was an attempted political assassination.

But Brooks, who was at the scene, indicated there might have been a political motive in the attack. He told the Fox Business Network: “We reported to police that there was a gentleman that confronted us when we were going to our car, and he wanted to know whether it was Republicans or Democrats that were out there. We said it was Republicans and he kind of started walking to the field.”

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Later, asked whether Hodgkinson fit the description of the man who approached him in the parking lot, the Republican congressman Ron DeSantis said: “Both [Representative] Jeff Duncan and I believe that, yes, that is the individual who approached our car. This would have been five to ten minutes before the shots started.”

Members of the House appeared shellshocked on Capitol Hill, and held a joint prayer session. The House speaker, Paul Ryan, received a standing ovation after insisting: “We are united. We are united in our shock, we are united in our anguish. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

On Wednesday night, Trump, along with his wife, Melania, visited the hospital where Scalise was being treated. The president and the first lady brought “two big bouquets of white flowers” which were carried by aides. According to White House press secretary Sean Spicer, Trump “spoke with Scalise’s family, and sat by his bedside with Mrs. Trump.”

Afterwards, Trump tweeted: “Just left hospital. Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the truly great people, is in very tough shape - but he is a real fighter. Pray for Steve!”

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Just left hospital. Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the truly great people, is in very tough shape - but he is a real fighter. Pray for Steve!

But the shooting was certain to raise again the issue of gun control in the US. Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe told reporters at the scene: “This is not what today is about, but there are too many guns on the streets.”

The incident was the first shooting of a member of the US Congress since January 2011, when Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords was seriously injured in an assassination attempt at a gathering of her constituents in Tucson, Arizona.

Giffords tweeted on Wednesday: “My heart is with my former colleagues, their families and staff, and the US Capitol police – public servants and heroes today and every day.”

Additional reporting by Ben Jacobs