Who was James T. Hodgkinson? The gunman behind the Virgina Shooting
Read original article by Krishnadev Calamur on the Atlantic or read a quick summary below;
- The FBI identified the gunman who opened fire this morning during a congressional congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois.
- A Facebook page belonging to a person with that name from the Belleville area contains several posts critical of President Trump. (There is no confirmation that it belongs to the alleged suspect.)
- In one, Trump is described as a “traitor” who “has destroyed our democracy.” The Facebook account’s banner has an image of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.
- is profile picture has the U.S. flag with the words: “Democratic Socialism explained in 3 words: We the People.” He also appeared to maintain a Twitter account, which wasn’t particularly active. His most recent posts urged Democratic senators to filibuster the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- “I know he wasn’t happy with the way things were going, the election results and stuff,” his brother, Michael Hodgkinson, told The New York Times. He said news of the shooting came “totally out of the blue.” He said his sister had spoken to Hodgkinson’s wife on Tuesday and, in the words of the newspaper, “the wife said that Mr. Hodgkinson had called home to say he was planning to come home because he missed his wife and dogs.”
