What we know about suspected gunman in congressman shooting
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia -- Information is starting to come in about the suspect in a shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Virginia Wednesday.
ABC News reports multiple law enforcement sources have identified the suspected shooter as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Illinois.
In a live announcement on national television, President Trump said the gunman has died.
Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders said the gunman had been among the many volunteers on his presidential campaign.
Law enforcement officials looking at anti-President Trump postings on Hodgkinson's social media feeds to see if there's any connection. He did belong to a Facebook group called "Terminate the Republican Party."
On May 14, 2010, he wrote: "I don't envy the rich; I despise the way they have bought our politicians and twisted our laws to their benefit."
On March 4, 2011, he wrote that Congress should rewrite tax codes to ease the tax burdens of the middle class.
"Let's get back to the good ol' days, when our representatives had a backbone and a conscience," he wrote.
In October 2011, he applauded the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York and Boston, writing that the demonstrators "are tired of our do-nothing Congress doing nothing while our country is going down the tubes."
He also wrote about conservative talk radio and TV, saying that his favorite show was Rachel Maddow's MSNBC program and writing that he believed MSNBC provided "a better, balanced opinion," than Fox News.
ABC News spoke with his wife, who was at work and as of 10:30 a.m. ET. She was unaware of the alleged link to her husband.
She said he has been living in Alexandria, Virginia, for the past two months. She said he had not been working while in Virginia, and was expected to return to Illinois in the coming days.
At the end of last year, this same James T. Hodgkinson left his job as a "Home Inspector, Mold/Air Quality Tester," according to the Facebook page.
Photos of suspected Virginia gunman James T. Hodgkinson
CRIMINAL HISTORY
Hodgkinson has no felony charges or convictions on record in his home county of St. Clair in Illinois. But he has an extensive history of traffic violations and petty offenses, spanning from 1989 to 2011, according to online court records of St. Clair County.
The vast majority of the cases are traffic violations and nearly all of the cases were later dismissed. The most recent conviction on his record was for a "petty offense" of failure to obtain an electrical contractor's license, in 2009.
The most serious charges (not convictions) in the records are:
- 1993 charges for DUI, fleeing/attempt to elude police, and resisting/obstructing a peace officer, class A & B misdemeanors (case closed/dismissed, end of supervision)
- 2006 charges for Battery/Cause Bodily Harm (2 counts), Aid/Abet damage to Motor Vehicle. Class A misdemeanors. (Case dismissed)
This is a developing story. Keep checking back for the latest information.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
