The man suspected of firing on a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria recently moved to the D.C. region and had been living in a van in the area near Simpson park.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Tim Slater holds up a flyer looking for information about the deceased suspect James T. Hodgkinson, during a media availability Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Alexandria, Va. A rifle-wielding attacker opened fire on Republican lawmakers as they practiced for a charity baseball game, critically wounding House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and hitting aides and Capitol police as congressmen and others dove for cover.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The FBI released this poster seeking information about James Hodgkinson, the suspected gunman who opened fire on the Republican congressional baseball team as they practiced at a field in Alexandria on Wednesday morning. Investigators believe Hodgkinson had been living in his van near the park since March. The FBI wants to hear from local residents who interacted with him and anyone he encountered during his travels from Belleville, Illinois, to Virginia.
(FBI)
FBI
This 2006 photo provided by the St. Clair County, Ill., Sheriff’s Department shows James T. Hodgkinson. Officials said Hodgkinson has been identified as the man who opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice Wednesday June 14, 2017 in Alexandria, Va.
(St. Clair County Illinois Sheriff’s Department via AP)
St. Clair County Illinois Sheriff’s Department via AP
Law enforcement investigate outside the home of James T. Hodgkinson on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Belleville, Ill. Officials said Hodgkinson has been identified as the man who opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice Wednesday morning in Alexandria, Va.
(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
Law enforcement investigate outside the home of James T. Hodgkinson on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Belleville, Ill. Officials said Hodgkinson has been identified as the man who opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice Wednesday morning in Alexandria, Va.
(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
Law enforcement investigate outside the home of James T. Hodgkinson on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, in Belleville, Ill. Officials said Hodgkinson has been identified as the man who opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice Wednesday morning in Alexandria, Va.
(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
Dale Walsh, who said he was a lifelong friend of James T. Hodgkinson, talks about his friend on Wednesday, June 14, 2017. Officials said Hodgkinson has been identified as the man who opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice Wednesday morning in Alexandria, Va. Walsh said Hodgkinson never talked politics with him and did not seem prone to violence. But he said he was a passionate person who occasionally got into fights.
(Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP
FILE — In this April 17, 2012, photo, James Hodgkinson of Belleville protests outside of the United States Post Office in Downtown Belleville, Ill. A government official says the suspect in the Virginia shooting that injured Rep. Steve Scalise and several others has been identified Hodgkinson.
(Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat, via AP)
Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat, via AP
Fox 2 News in St. Louis interviewed Hodgkinson during an Occupy Wall Street-style protest in December 2011. Hodgkinson is from Belleville, Illinois, which lies across the river from St. Louis. The station republished the video on Wednesday after Hodgkinson opened fire on members of Congress who were practicing for a baseball game at a field in Alexandria.
(Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat, via AP)
WASHINGTON – The FBI wants to hear from Alexandria residents who may have interacted with the man who opened fire on members of the Republican congressional baseball team.
James Hodgkinson had been living out of a white cargo van in the East Monroe Street area since March and was not working, said Tim Slater, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
East Monroe Street runs alongside Simpson Field, where four people were shot and two others injured Wednesday morning. Hodgkinson was also shot during a firefight with police – he suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his torso and later died at George Washington University Hospital.
The 66-year-old Belleville, Illinois, man previously ran a home inspection business in Illinois, where he also had several minor run-ins with police over the years.
Police also want to speak with anyone Hodgkinson knew personally or who encountered him while he traveled from the St. Louis area to Virginia, Slater said.
Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI and choose option No. 1 or go online to tips.fbi.gov.
Investigators are working to determine a motive for the shooting, he said.
According to posts on his Facebook page and letters to his hometown newspaper, Hodgkinson had a history of railing against income inequality and the Republican Party.
In letters to the editor, republished by the Belleville News-Democrat, Hodgkinson repeatedly writes about income inequality, arguing that widening inequality and low tax brackets for the richest Americans enacted in the 1920s led to the Great Depression.
“If we don’t raise the tax brackets to reach the rich we will never get out of this Great Recession,” he wrote in a 2012 letter to the editor.
“I don’t envy the rich,” he wrote in another letter. “I despise the way they have bought our politicians and twisted our laws to their benefit.”
The letters chastise tax policies enacted during Republican-led administrations including George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and pre-Depression leaders Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
On his Facebook page, which has been taken down, he criticized Republican members of Congress and called Trump a traitor. He also belonged to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said that Hodgkinson had volunteered for his campaign for president, which focused on economic equality and nearly toppled Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations last summer.
Hodgkinson also had several brushes with law enforcement. Last year, he scared a neighbor when he fired a hunting rifle into a field near other homes. A sheriff’s deputy responded but no charges were filed, The Associated Press reported.
In the 1990s, he was arrested for resisting police and drunken driving. In 2006, he was arrested on two counts of battery — for punching a man in the face with a shotgun stock and for punching a woman with his fist. He was also charged for damaging a vehicle for cutting the seat belt with a knife, according to The Associated Press.
