NEW YORK – The third-highest ranked U.S. 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 said. President Donald Trump said he and Vice President Mike Pence were monitoring developments closely. Alexandria police said a suspect was in custody.
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 white male with a rifle. A congressional staffer and two members of the lawmakers’ security detail were also injured, Brooks said.
“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.
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.
The House Republican baseball team has been practicing in recent weeks in early mornings at the Alexandria site for Thursday annual congressional baseball game.
Scalise has been a 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.
“The encounter I had in the parking lot was very, very strange,” DeSantis said, although it is unclear whether the person was the assailant.
Senator Rand 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.
Steven T. Dennis and Toluse Olorunnipa are reporters for Bloomberg News.
