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SHOOTER13
Guest
The Washington Post
Ann E. Marimow, Tom Jackman, Shawn Boburg
Hodgkinson, the suspect in shooting at congressional ballgame practice, had posted anti-Trump rhetoric on social media...
© James Hodgkinson/Handout/Reuters James Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois
The man suspected of firing dozens of rounds into an Alexandria baseball field Wednesday morning was highly critical of President Trump and other Republican leaders on social media, and had volunteered for the presidential campaign of Democrat Bernie Sanders.
Law enforcement officials were still investigating what motivated James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill., who died from his injuries after being taken to a hospital Wednesday morning.
Hodgkinson repeatedly blasted Republican lawmakers in letters to his local newspaper for favoring the “super rich.” A Facebook page believed to be his features pictures of Sanders, and anti-Trump rhetoric, including a recent post that reads: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”
© Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat/AP In this April 17, 2012, photo, James Hodgkinson of Belleville protests outside of the United States Post Office in Downtown Belleville, Ill.
A government official says the suspect in the Virginia shooting that…The Republican lawmaker who represented Hodgkinson’s hometown said he was “always angry” about the GOP agenda, but “never crossed the line.”
Hodgkinson contacted the office of Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) 14 times through email or telephone.
“Every issue that we were working on, he was not in support of,” Bost said, saying the communications were of a left-wing slant but delivered “never with any threats, only anger.”
It was not immediately known on Wednesday how long Hodgkinson had been staying in the Washington area. He was still in Illinois as of March 24, according to reports of interactions he had with police from St. Clair County, Ill.
Stephen Brennwald, an Alexandria resident and attorney, said he realized after seeing Hodgkinson’s photo on the news that Hodgkinson was the same man who had been hanging out for at least the last several weeks in the lobby of the YMCA adjacent to field where Hodgkinson opened fire.
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 2016 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 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.”