Multiple People Shot, Including House Majority Whip, At Congressional Baseball Practice; Suspect In Custody

from Zero Hedge:

Michigan Rep. Mike Bishop tells WWJ Newsradio 950 he was attending the practice around 5:30 a.m., just outside of Alexandria, when shots rang out. He said he and his colleagues were “sitting ducks.”

“As we were standing here this morning, a gunman walked up to the fence line and just began to shoot. I was standing at home plate and he was in the third base line,” Bishop said. “He had a rifle that was clearly meant for the job of taking people out, multiple casualties, and he had several rounds and magazines that he kept unloading and reloading.”

More than 50 shots were fired, according to CBS News, with some accounts putting the number closer to 100. Four people were injured, including two Capitol Hill police officers and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. The suspect was also shot.

“The only reason why any of us walked out of this thing, by the grace of God, one of the folks here had a weapon to fire back and give us a moment to find cover. We were inside the backstop and if we didn’t have that cover by a brave person who stood up and took a shot themselves, we would not have gotten out of there and every one of us would have been hit — every single one of us,” said Bishop. “He was coming around the fence line and he was looking for all of us who had found cover in different spots. But if we didn’t have return fire right there, he would have come up to each one of us and shot us point-blank.”

Bishop was uninjured. General Jack Bergman, who represents northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, and John Moolenaar, from Midland, were also at the practice; both uninjured. Democratic members of Congress were practicing at a different field, miles away.

“Two of our staff was hit, Steve Scalise was hit on second base, I watched him get hit and I couldn’t do anything to help him. We tried to get him off as fast as we could but this guy was relentless with his fire,” he said. “One of our staffers got hit in the chest and I pray for him, I just don’t know what the outcome is going to be. This is a tragic situation and frankly, it’s changed everything as I know it forever.”

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