hodgkinson bb congr
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">th<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ere seemed to be little about America that James T. Hodgkinson agreed with. He had a hero, Bernie Sanders. But his enemies seemed to be endless.</span></font><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To the former Illinois home inspector, Donald Trump and his whole family were traitors who needed to be imprisoned. The Republican Party was worse than terrorists. The wealthy were a corrupt oligarchy that needed to be shattered. On post after post on Facebook, Hodgkinson sounded off on the crisis facing the country, only to see his posts mostly met with silence from his friends.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Early Wednesday morning, Hodgkinson took his anger into his own hands and opened fire on a baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., where Republican congressmen, staff and lobbyists had gathered to prepare for an upcoming game to raise money for charity.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the shooting stopped, four victims were injured, and Hodgkinson, confronted by police, was mortally wounded. Not long after he died, his hero, Sanders — whom he had campaigned for — denounced him on the floor of the U.S. Senate.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"I am sickened by this despicable act," said Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.), who gave his condolences to the victims. "Let me be as clear as I can be: Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson's attack was the work of a left-wing activist and small-town Democrat who had, for years, waged his own political war of words against Republicans on social media with no success.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But it was also the final act of an adrift father who rarely spoke to strangers and sometimes directed his dissatisfaction at his neighbors and family — at one point in 2006 violently trying to pull his daughter out of a car, punching her friend in the face and threatening another of her friends with a shotgun.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the final months of his life, the 66-year-old former construction worker had left his longtime home in Illinois to spend much of his time at a YMCA gym in Alexandria near the baseball diamond, fulminating online. "Republicans Hate Women, Minorities, Working Class People, & Most All (99%) of the People of the Country," he wrote on May 26.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The last time authorities in St. Clair County, Ill., saw Hodgkinson at home in Belleville, in March, sheriff's deputies were responding to a call of shots fired. They found Hodgkinson outside his house with a hunting rifle, practicing his shooting.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"He was a pushy little bastard, an in-your-face kind of guy," said Lyndon Evanko, a retired attorney from Belleville who remembered Hodgkinson for his temper and brusque attitude toward police and neighbors. "He believed what he believed and he wasn't going to take any [stuff] from anybody."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson was born in East St. Louis, Ill., on Dec. 12, 1950, and apparently did not stray far from his roots in downstate Illinois. According to his Facebook profile, he attended high school in Belleville, population about 43,000, and college at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He later worked in construction and home inspections in Belleville, where he had scrapes with his neighbors and with the law, most of them minor.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1993, Hodgkinson was charged with<b> drunk driving </b>and other traffic offenses by Illinois State Police near his home, a suburb of St. Louis. Court records show that judgment was withheld, and he spent a year under court supervision.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson was arrested again in a more harrowing incident, in 2006, on a charge of battery by the St. Clair County Sheriff's Office.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The incident apparently unfolded at a neighbor's house as Hodgkinson burst inside to get his daughter to come home, according to an arrest report. Hodgkinson "became violent" after his daughter refused to leave and tried to hide in the house, the report said.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"James grabbed [his daughter] by the hair and pulled her off the floor," the report states. "After [she] was off the floor she attempted to run away. James would not release his grip and threw [her] to the floor" and later started hitting her in the arms and pulling her hair.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His daughter ran out of the house with a friend. But when they got into a car to leave, Hodgkinson reportedly cut her seat belt with a pocketknife and tried to pull her out of the car. His wife came to his aid and started "fighting with" her daughter and trying to drag her out of the car by her legs, the report said.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson then started choking his daughter, ripping her sweater, and then punched her friend in the face when she threatened to call police, according to the report.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later, another friend of his daughter went to Hodgkinson's house to talk to him about the incident, and Hodgkinson struck the young man in the face with the butt of a shotgun, according to police. The youth told police he heard a single gunshot as he ran away.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Officials arrested Hodgkinson and his wife, but records say the case was dismissed after the victims repeatedly did not show up at court hearings,</b> according to Brendan Kelly, St. Clair County state's attorney. (Hodgkinson's wife could not be reached for comment, and court records do not show a record of a charge.)</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Records show that Hodgkinson allowed his inspection and contracting licenses to lapse.</b> Evanko said he represented Hodgkinson in 2009 when he was ticketed for doing work without the proper permits.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Even with that, he had a temper: 'What are they charging me for? I know what I was doing. So what if I didn't have the paperwork?'" Evanko said.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former construction industry acquaintance, Bill Stanis of St. Louis, said Hodgkinson was "a little off."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"He was just always very opinionated in what he thought should be right," Stanis said. "He was always quick to tell you what he thought it was and what he thought it should be."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stanis had worked with Hodgkinson on construction projects 20 or 30 years ago, but lost touch with him after moving from Belleville to St. Louis.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The pair reconnected in 2013 when Stanis hired Hodgkinson to inspect his new home. But when it took Stanis more than two weeks to send Hodgkinson a check for the work, Hodgkinson immediately sued him, which stunned Stanis.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Dude, I hadn't seen you for 20 years, and you sue me? … I can't believe you did that to me," Stanis remembered thinking.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In recent years, Hodgkinson supported the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 and was an early Sanders fan during the last Democratic presidential primaries, volunteering for his campaign in Iowa.</b></font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A neighbor in Belleville, Aaron Meurer, 33, said Hodgkinson lived in a well-kept home in a rural area and had kept a Sanders sign in his yard during the 2016 election.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"He had mentioned stuff about Republicans and high taxes and not taxing the rich enough, stuff like that," Meurer said. "Nothing too extreme or too violent."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson bought a used white van, Meurer said, and disappeared. FBI officials said he relocated to the Alexandria area in March.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p data-page="2" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stephen Brennman, a lawyer who lives in Alexandria, said he would see Hodgkinson nearly every day at the YMCA near where the shootings occurred. He said Hodgkinson would most often sit in the lobby, or near a window that has a good view of the ball field, and stare at his computer.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson never wore workout clothes — instead, he was usually dressed in polyester plants, collared shirts and a flat hat resembling a beret.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"He was always in his own little world," Brennman said. "I never saw him talk to anybody.… Just a blank stare."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But Hodgkinson was busy on his Facebook page, where President Trump and congressional Republicans were central targets of his ire. In a May 31 post he called Trump and his family "traitors" who "Need to Be Prosecuted to the Fullest Extent of the Law."</b></font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson was also a member of several liberal-leaning groups on Facebook, including the Road to Hell is Paved with Republicans, Donald Trump is Not My President, Terminate the Republican Party and President Bernie Sanders.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I've seen him post some," said Howard Pearlman, founder of the left-leaning group Terminate the Republican Party, from his Cherry Hill, N.J., home, adding that he did not personally know Hodgkinson. "Everyone posts — we're really political."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But when Hodgkinson turned violent, it was clear he had gone too far. "It's terrible what he did," Pearlman said of the gunman. "I — and we as a group — do not condone this at all."</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Hodgkinson was identified as the gunman, his Facebook profile was removed.</font></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Times staff writer Kurtis Lee in Los Angeles contributed to this report.</font></span></span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="mailto:matt.pearce@latimes.com" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">matt.pearce@latimes.com</font></a></span></span></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">guard uk</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vrginia shooting: gunman was leftwing activist with record of domestic violence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">James ‘Tom’ Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old white man killed during a shootout with police, was previously arrested for domestic battery</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steve Scalise in ‘critical condition’, hospital says</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oliver Laughland in Belleville and Jon Swaine</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thu 15 Jun 2017 02.42 EDT First published on Wed 14 Jun 2017 15.14 EDT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> This article is over 1 year old</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shares</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3,464</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Booking photograph of James T Hodgkinson.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Booking photograph of James T Hodgkinson. Photograph: St Clair County Sheriff’s Department</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">James “Tom” Hodgkinson, the gunman who shot congressman Steve Scalise during an attack on a Republican congressional baseball practice session on Wednesday, was a leftwing political activist with a record of domestic violence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson, 66, died from injuries sustained during a shootout with police. He was previously based in Belleville, Illinois, but had been living in Alexandria, Virginia, the site of Wednesday’s shooting, for the past two months.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> The Virginia shooting is a Rorschach test for America</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross Barkan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross Barkan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Read more</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The US Capitol police confirmed in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that Hodgkinson was the gunman, and that he had died in an exchange of fire with agents from their dignitary protection division.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The FBI said that it was investigating Hodgkinson’s “associates, whereabouts, social media impressions, and potential motivations.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dillon McConnell, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in an email that investigators were at Hodgkinson’s home in Illinois. “We are there assisting the FBI, Belleville police and our other law enforcement partners in the execution of a search warrant,” said McConnell.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In April 2006, Hodgkinson was arrested for battery, domestic battery and discharging a firearm, after he allegedly physically assaulted his foster daughter and two of her friends.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A St Clair County sheriff’s department incident report said Hodgkinson threw his daughter around a room, pulled her hair and hit her. He then punched a female friend of his daughter in the face “with a closed fist” and struck the woman’s boyfriend in the head with the stock of his shotgun, before firing a round as the man ran away.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One day earlier, according to a separate police report, Hodgkinson had badly damaged a wooden bedroom door in a neighbour’s home while searching for his daughter. All the charges were later dismissed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> In this undated file photo, James Hodgkinson holds a sign during a protest outside of a United States Post Office in Belleville, Illinois.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Facebook Twitter Pinterest</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> In this undated file photo, James Hodgkinson holds a sign during a protest outside of a United States post office in Belleville, Illinois. Photograph: Derik Holtmann/AP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost a decade earlier, another foster daughter living with Hodgkinson and his wife, Suzanne, had killed herself at the age of 17, according to the Belleville News-Democrat. The daughter, Wanda Ashley Stock, doused herself with gasoline and set herself on fire inside a car.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson struck some people who met him as an unusual character who was difficult to read. “To be truthful, he was very strange,” Douglas Knepper, a relative of Hodgkinson, told the Guardian.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March this year, police received a complaint from someone living near Hodgkinson that he was “in the pine trees, shooting”, according to another sheriff’s department report. The caller reported hearing about 50 shots. Police noted that Hodgkinson, who was found to have a valid state Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, was told to not shoot his gun in the area.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson had dissolved his home inspection business in January this year, according to Illinois state records, and had been posting statements railing against Donald Trump and other Republicans to his Facebook page over recent months.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In one post on 22 March, Hodgkinson wrote: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.” In another, dated 25 December 2016, he wrote: “We Don’t Need or Deserve a Billionaire for President.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson also posted messages criticising the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, whom he described as “Republican Lite”. He showed strong support for Clinton’s rival in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders. “I want Bernie to win the White House,” Hodgkinson posted in August 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sanders said in a statement on Wednesday that he had been told Hodgkinson had “apparently volunteered” on his presidential campaign. Media reports suggested Hodgkinson volunteered in Iowa.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'United in shock and anguish': Congress comes together after shooting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Read more</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I am sickened by this despicable act,” Sanders said in a statement. “Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Meurer, a neighbour, said Hodgkinson was vocal about his political stance and put a Sanders sign up on his lawn during last year’s Democratic primary campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“He had strong political views, but nothing that seemed crazy,” said Meurer, who owns a landscaping business. “He was a liberal Democrat and I am kind of the opposite, but we never had a serious political dispute. I tended to avoid talking about it.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meurer said he often saw Hodgkinson working in his yard or playing with young children, who Meurer understood to be the children of Hodgkinson’s own adopted or fostered children.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson’s wife, Suzanne, said recently that he had “gone on a trip” but did not provide specific details, according to Meurer. “I just assumed he had retired and decided to go travelling,” the neighbour added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to his local newspaper, the Belleville News-Democrat, Hodgkinson had long been involved in local activism and was a frequent author of letters to the paper, voicing opposition to Republican tax policy and advocating for the legalisation of marijuana.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“President Ronald Reagan’s ‘trickle down’ policy did not work, and never will,” he wrote in a letter in May 2012. That same year, he was photographed protesting outside a post office in Belleville holding a sign that said: “Tax the rich”.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Police reports from a decade ago indicate that Hodgkinson was sometimes irritated by neighbours and other residents around his home in Belleville. In January 2007, he called authorities to report that his neighbours’ trash collector had been turning around in his driveway. The following month he reported that a passing driver, whom he identified, had damaged his yard and decking.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> James Hodgkinson’s 1968 high school yearbook photo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> James Hodgkinson’s 1968 high school yearbook photo. Photograph: Belleville Township West High School</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost two years earlier, he had called the sheriff’s department to request more police presence near his property “due to juveniles drinking alcohol on the property behind his.” Hodgkinson told the deputy who arrived at his house that the under-age drinkers had been driving through his yard.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hodgkinson was born in December 1950 in East St Louis, Illinois. He graduated from Belleville Township West high school in 1968. Unlike most of his classmates, he listed no interests, sports teams or associations in his yearbook entry. On his Facebook page, he said that he had attended Southwestern Illinois College and Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He had a brother and a sister. His brother, Mike, sang in their high school’s concert choir and was on the wrestling team. Their mother, Deloris, was a lab technician who died aged 81 in 2004. Their father, James, died at 91 in 2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A 2006 police report recorded him as being 5ft 6in and weighing 190lb. Witnesses at the baseball field on Wednesday reported the gunman was dressed in blue jeans and blue shirt as he calmly opened fire with a rifle on the practice session from behind a fence. Federal officials said he was armed with a handgun and a rifle.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“He was calm. He was just shooting back and they [law enforcement] were shooting at him,” one witness, Falisha Peoples, told MSNBC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dozens of reporters lined up outside Hodgkinson’s modest two-storey house on Wednesday evening as storm clouds began to roll in over the surrounding cornfields. The lights were on inside the property and a deputy from the St Clair county sheriff’s office said agents from the FBI and ATF remained inside.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A neighbour who did not want to be named said Hodgkinson’s wife had left the property earlier in the morning under escort. The main road outside had been blocked off by local police.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The neighbour, who had known Hodgkinson for three years and lived in the property next door, said the 66 year-old “kept himself to himself” but was known for expressing his political views and had attended local government meetings in the past.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You think you know your neighbours,” he said. “But then you realize you don’t.”</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div>