BREAKING: Shooter Identified by Law Enforcement Officials as James T. Hodgkinson; UPDATE: Shooter Dead

Ann E. Marimow and Tom Jackman report: The shooter at the GOP congressional baseball practice this morning is James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., according to law enforcement officials. Hodgkinson, 66, owns a home inspection business. His home inspection license expired in November 2016 and was not renewed, state records show … (more)

A Facebook page belonging to a person with the same name includes pictures of Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and rhetoric against President Trump, including a post that reads: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”

BREAKING: Rep. Meehan confirms shooter approached Rep. Don Desantis & asked if players were Republicans or Democrats before the shooting, pic.twitter.com/JRSytW1J7j

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) June 14, 2017

Charles Orear, 50, a restaurant manager from St. Louis, said in an interview Wednesday that he became friendly with Hodgkinson during their work together in Iowa on Sanders’s campaign.

Orear said Hodgkinson was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Orear said when told by phone about the shooting.

Orear described Hodgkinson as a “quiet guy” who was “very mellow, very reserved” when they stayed overnight at the home of a Sanders’s supporter in Rock Island, Ill., after canvassing for the Vermont senator.

“He was this union tradesman, pretty stocky, and we stayed up talking politics,” he said. “He was more on the really progressive side of things.”

When informed that the suspect’s Facebook page prominently features Sanders’s image, the senator’s spokesman Michael Briggs said:

“Our prayers go out for a full recovery of Rep. Scalise, the congressional aides and police officers who were injured. We’ve got to stop the violence.”

POTUS says shooter has died from his injuries

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) June 14, 2017 

Hodgkinson was among those taken to a hospital Wednesday. FBI special agent in charge Tim Slater said at a news conference that he did not know the condition of the suspected shooter … (read more)

Source: The Washington Post