Gunman launched into Trump tirade before congressional shooting

Authorities said Wednesday there was not yet a clear motive for the shooting, as the FBI investigated Hodgkinson's associations and social media postings.

This photo from Facebook shows James T. Hodgkinson.

House Majority Whip Steven Scalise was shot in the hip.

A list of names - including some Republican members of Congress - was found with the Alexandria shooter, according to a law enforcement source and Rep. Mo Brooks, who was on the list and present at the practice but unharmed by the shooting.

The shooter was identified as James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old home inspector from IL who had several minor run-ins with the law in recent years and belonged to a Facebook group called "Terminate the Republican Party".

Authorities believe the 66-year-old had been living out of a van in northern Virginia since March after leaving his southern IL home.

In a national address, Trump appealed for unity following the morning assault in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.

The baseball field, a parking lot and YMCA facility remained closed Thursday, as did several streets in the area. "She had no idea he felt as strong as he did", Wagner said. While Hodgkinson insisted that she was a "very practical, level-headed girl", she one day doused herself in gasoline, set herself alight and burned to death. "But you just never know".

"It just took me by surprise when I saw it on the news today that he did what he did", said Dale Walsh.

A half-dozen patrons gathered at the tavern Thursday afternoon for the $1 taco special and to shoot pool said Hodgkinson didn't hang out there and wasn't known to them.

"I had no idea this was going to happen and I don't know what to say about it". When that woman's boyfriend confronted Hodgkinson, he struck him in the face with a shotgun before firing off a round as the man fled, a police report said.

Bill Schaumleffel recalled that he heard loud shots being fired outside his house, which stands about 500 feet behind Hodgkinson's home. Staffer Zack BarthZack Barth, a legislative correspondent for Austin Congressman Roger Williams, was shot in the calf. She added she didn't notice any sign that he was going to commit any kind of crime, and did not know he took his guns with him when they left. He always drank Budweiser from a can and drank alone, barely speaking to anyone, including the bartenders.

Sanders said Wednesday that he was "sickened by this despicable act". And to get a better sense of the political climate, I stopped by a local softball league game here last night, spoke to some people there.

Hodgkinson went to Washington several weeks ago to protest against Trump's election, his brother told the New York Times.

She said her husband, who had worked in the building trades and as a home inspector, had sold "almost everything he owned from his businesses" and had gone to Washington.

His Facebook page shows he was a fan of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who previous year made an unsuccessful presidential bid.

Suspected gunman James Hodgkinson was a former volunteer for the Sanders presidential campaign, the newspaper noted.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, he wrote frequent letters to the editor between 2008 and 2012, criticizing Republicans' tax policies. Hodgkinson had been angry about income inequality and conservatism.

Hodgkinson also had arrests in his background for a series of minor offenses and at least one more serious matter.

Before James Hodgkinson traveled to Virginia, he lived in the town of Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis.

"I've known him pretty well all of my life", he said.

When Hodgkinson refused to stop, Schaumleffel called the sheriff's department.