Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 15 June 2017
Gunman who shot congressman had history of anti-GOP activity

By DON BABWIN twisted our laws to their
JIM SALTER benefit.”
Associated Press Less than a year later, on
BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) — The March 4, 2011, he wrote
gunman who shot a top that Congress should re-
GOP congressman and write tax codes to ease the
several other people tax burdens of the middle
Wednesday at a baseball class.
practice outside the na- “Let’s get back to the good
tion’s capital had a long ol’ days, when our repre-
history of lashing out at sentatives had a back-
Republicans and recently bone and a conscience,”
frightened a neighbor by he wrote.
firing a rifle into a field be- Later that year, in October
hind his Illinois home. 2011, he applauded the
James T. Hodgkinson, 66, Occupy Wall Street protest-
wounded House Rep. Steve ers in New York and Bos-
Scalise before he was fatal- ton, writing that the dem-
ly shot by police who had onstrators “are tired of our
been guarding the House do-nothing Congress doing
majority whip. nothing while our country is
In the hours after the at- going down the tubes.”
tack in Alexandria, Virginia, Hodgkinson had arrests in
a picture began to emerge his background for a series
of a shooter with a mostly In this April 17, 2012, photo, James Hodgkinson of Belleville protests outside of the United States of minor offenses and at
minor arrest record who Post Office in Downtown Belleville, Ill. A government official says the suspect in the Virginia shoot-
worked as a home inspec- ing that injured Rep. Steve Scalise and several others has been identified Hodgkinson. least one more serious mat-
(Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat, via AP)
tor and despised the Re- ter.
publican Party. ran a home-inspection exandria area since March, most of his life in the com- In April 2006, Hodgkinson
On Facebook, Hodgkinson business out of his house in living out of a cargo van munity of 42,000 just across was charged with misde-
was a member of a group southern Illinois. His Face- and not working, FBI agent the Mississippi River from St. meanor battery after he
called “Terminate the Re- book page shows that he Tim Slater said. Louis, compared the eco- stormed into a neighbor’s
publican Party,” a fact that was a fan of Vermont Sen. An online search of news- nomic conditions of the house in an attempt to
seemed to take on chill- Bernie Sanders, who last papers shows that he fre- time to those that preced- force home a teenage girl
ing new meaning in light year made an unsuccess- quently wrote letters to ed the Great Depression who, according to the St.
of an account from South ful bid for the Democratic his local newspaper, the and excoriated Congress Louis Post-Dispatch, was
Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan. presidential nomination. Belleville News-Democrat, for not increasing the num- under guardianship of
He said he was preparing Sanders acknowledged which published nearly two ber of tax brackets and Hodgkinson and his wife.
to leave the baseball field Wednesday that Hodgkin- dozen of them between adopting other tax-reform Witnesses told deputies
when a man politely asked son had apparently been 2010 and 2012. Many in- measures. that Hodgkinson burst into
him whether it was a Demo- among many volunteers on cluded complaints about On May 14, 2010, he wrote: the home and told his
cratic or Republican team his 2016 campaign. the same theme: income “I don’t envy the rich; I de- daughter “to get your stuff.
before quietly walking off. Authorities believe Hodg- inequality. spise the way they have It’s time to come home,”
Until recently, Hodgkinson kinson had been in the Al- Hodgkinson, who spent bought our politicians and the report said. q
The sad duty now his, Trump calls for unity after shooting

By JONATHAN LEMIRE heroic action” of Capitol were wounded. The gun-
Associated Press Police officers who took man was killed.
NEW YORK (AP) — It was down the gunman. Trump, whose 71st birth-
a sadly familiar ritual: an “We may have our differ- day was Wednesday, was
American president ad- ences, but we do well in informed of the shooting
dressing the nation at an times like these to remem- minutes after it occurred.
unsettling time, decrying ber that everyone who The White House press of-
violence while urging citi- serves in our nation’s capi- fice quickly put out a brief
zens to set aside their dif- tal is here because, above statement noting that
ferences and pray for the all, they love our country,” Trump was “deeply sad-
recovery of victims. Trump said. “We can all dened by the tragedy,”
But this time, it was Presi- agree that we are blessed and the president followed
dent Donald Trump who to be Americans, that our up with a tweet: “Rep.
was called upon to speak children deserve to grow Steve Scalise of Louisiana,
words of comfort in such up in a nation of safety a true friend and patriot,
a troubled moment, one President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the and peace and that we was badly injured but will
fraught with the overtones White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 14, 2017, about are strongest when we are fully recover. Wanting to
of gun politics and the the shooting in Alexandria, Va. where House Majority Whip unified and when we work present the president as a
heated rhetoric of a nation Steve Scalise of La., and others, where shot during a Congres- together for the common steadying hand and avoid
sional baseball practice.
sharply divided along party (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) good.” Republican Rep. any distractions after the
lines. Trump’s measured Steve Scalise of Louisiana shooting, the White House
response to Wednesday’s previous acts of violence. ing of a top House Repub- was shot in the early morn- then quickly canceled a
shooting at a congressional He delivered a brief ad- lican and others as a “very, ing fusillade of gunfire, and presidential event on ap-
baseball practice stood in dress from the White House very brutal assault.” He said several other people, in- prenticeships at the Labor
stark contrast to his inflam- Diplomatic Room in which that “many lives would cluding members of Scal- Department and scuttled
matory reactions to some he denounced the shoot- have been lost without the ise’s security detail, also any plans for a briefing.