The Alexandria, Va., baseball field where Republican lawmakers were practicing for a game Wednesday morning turned into “a killing field,” when a lone gunman opened fire, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a television interview.
Paul told Fox News he was in the outfield, behind a fence, when the gunman started firing up to 60 shots at lawmakers, hitting Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., two officers and an aide.
Paul saw Scalise “go down” at second base.
“We can see him but can’t get to him,” Paul said. “My gut feeling was I have to decide to stay or run. At that point, I think he’s advancing toward us.”
Sen. Rand Paul: “The field was basically a killing field.” pic.twitter.com/kx82HwfuG0— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 14, 2017
Paul said if not for the security detail who accompanies Scalise everywhere, there would have been “no stopping” the shooter, who was situated somewhere behind third base.
“I do believe without the Capitol Hill police, it would have been a massacre,” Paul said. “We had no defense, no defense at all. We are lucky Scalise was there. This was his security detail. Without them, it would have been a massacre. There was no stopping this guy. We were like sitting ducks. It was a wide open field, it’s a killing field.”
Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Iraq War veteran and a surgeon, was with Scalise.
“I felt like I was back in Iraq but without my weapon,” Wenstrup said.
