At the Belleville News-Democrat, "Belleville suspect killed in congressional shootout wanted to ‘terminate the Republican Party’":
#Belleville suspect James Hodgkinson #killed in congressional #shootout belonged to anti-GOP groups. #Alexandira https://t.co/NF7KbWKM1I pic.twitter.com/2AIMiVmJxY
— News-Democrat (@bellevillenewsd) June 14, 2017
The accused shooter who was killed during gunfire at practice for a congressional baseball game Wednesday morning was from Belleville.More.
The shooter was James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, who belonged to a number of anti-Republican groups, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”
President Donald Trump said Hodgkinson died during gunfire exchanged with congressional security workers.
Hodgkinson, 66, owned a home-inspection business. Hodgkinson was a licensed home inspector from 1994 to 1997, when his license expired, according to records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. He also held a license from 2003 to 2016, but it was not renewed.
Two days ago, Hodgkinson posted an angry tweet about President Donald Trump on Facebook.
“I Want to Say Mr. President, for being an ass hole you are Truly the Biggest Ass Hole We Have Ever Had in the Oval Office,” he wrote on Facebook.
Hodgkinson is a member of a number of anti-Republican groups on Facebook, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”
▪ “The Road to Hell is Paved with Republicans”
▪ “Donald Trump is not my President”
▪ “President Bernie Sanders”
▪ “Illinois Berners United to Resist Trump”
▪ “Boycott the Republican Party”
▪ “Expose Republican Fraud”
▪ “Terminate the Republican Party”
The FBI was investigating Hodgkinson’s postings on social media. Agents from the FBI and other federal investigators arrived Wednesday morning at Hodgkinson’s two-story home on the outskirts of Belleville. Spokesman Dillon McConnell of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said the agency is “conducting emergency traces for a handgun and a rifle,” but declined to identify the weapons types.
Hodgkinson took a Democratic ballot in the primary election in 2016.
In 2012, Hodgkinson took part in a protest outside the downtown Belleville post office. He said he was part of a “99%” team drawing attention to the amount of money and political power the top 1 percent of Americans acquired.
Aaron Meurer is a neighbor of the Hodgkinsons and said he noticed in the last two months James had been gone. The alleged shooter’s wife Suzanne told him her husband was travelling.
“She said that he went on a trip. She wasn’t real specific,” said Meurer, unclear whether the couple had split up recently.”He’s been gone for the last two months, so I haven’t seen him around too often.”
Meurer said he occasionally cut his neighbor’s grass to help out. He didn’t know the neighbors well, just socialized from the lawn, and said his neighbor would fire guns on his rural property, commonplace in the open area outside of Belleville...
