House Majority Whip Steve Scalise has been shot at a congressional baseball practice in Del Ray, Virginia. Bloomberg`s Anna Edgerton reports on `Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas.` (Source: Bloomberg)
The third-highest ranked U. House Republican and at least four others were injured Wednesday morning in a shooting at a congressional baseball practice field in an Alexandria, Virginia neighborhood, witnesses and police officials said.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot in the hip, Representative Mo Brooks said in a phone interview on CNN after witnessing the shooting. Brooks said he saw a man with a rifle. A congressional staffer and two members of the lawmakers’ security detail were also injured, Brooks said. Alexandria police said a suspect was in custody.
"There must have been 50, 100 shots fired," Brooks said.
Brooks said members of the security detail fired back with pistols at the shooter until the shooter was tackled to the ground.
“Our lives were saved by the Capitol Hill police. Had they not been there I think it would have been a massacre,” Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told CNN. “You are completely helpless,” he said, having no defenses and being unable to help those who were injured.
“The field was basically a killing field. If you were to run out there while the shooter was still shooting, he would have shot anybody,” Paul added. “He was shooting people as far away as right field. That’s probably, what, 75 yards away.”
Brad Wenstrup, a Republican congressman who served as a military surgeon in Iraq, attended to Scalise after the shooter was down, Brooks said on CNN. Brooks said he and other lawmakers tried to apply a tourniquet with his belt for one injured person who was bleeding, he said.
Representative Roger Williams, a Texas Republican who coaches the team, said he wasn’t injured but that a member of his staff was and is receiving medical treatment.
Michael Brown, the chief of the Alexandria police, said that they are investigating the incident, which was reported shortly after 7 a. He said local police responded within three minutes.
“Two of our officers engaged in gunfire, return fire,” he told reporters, but declined to give details on the victims or the shooter. “It’s an active scene. We have a lot of witnesses who we’re having to interview.”
Practice Field
The House Republican baseball team has been practicing in recent weeks in early mornings at the Alexandria site for Thursday’s annual congressional baseball game.
Scalise has been an avid participant in the game since arriving in Congress. As whip, he is the chief vote counter in the Republican conference.
Brooks said the assailant "was trying to take out our security detail" before he turned to lawmakers.
Representative Ron DeSantis, a Florida Republican, left a few minutes before the shooting but told Fox News that a man walked up and asked if Republicans or Democrats were out on the field. He wasn’t carrying anything, DeSantis said.
‘Very, Very Strange’
“The encounter I had in the parking lot was very, very strange,” DeSantis said, although it is unclear whether the person was the assailant.
Paul told MSNBC that he was in the batting cage when he first heard one isolated shot and then a rapid succession of shots. He saw Scalise dragging himself to the outfield.
Paul also said that the security detail was present because Scalise is in a leadership position in Congress. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been any officers present.
The House Democrats, meanwhile, were at their own, separate practice and prayed for their colleagues on the field, per a tweet from Representative Ruben Kihuen.
Brooks said he was on the field when he saw a rifle from behind the third base dugout.
“I hear another ‘blam’ and I realize that there’s an active shooter,’’ he said. At the same time I see Steve Scalise, over near second base, scream. He was shot.’’
The shooter continued to fire from a semi-automatic weapon, as members of Congress and their staff members ran in various directions to escape the barrage of bullets, he said.
Brooks and several members of Congress and staff members hid at a batting cage behind the first-base side of home plate. At least one person hiding there was injured in the leg.
President Donald Trump said he and Vice President Mike Pence were monitoring developments closely.
0 comments:
Post a Comment