A longtime photographer of the Congressional baseball game said quick thinking and the heroism of the Capitol Police’s saved his life during a harrowing shooting at a Republican practice Wednesday in Alexandria, Va.
Marty LaVor has taken photos of every Congressional baseball game for more than 30 years and was in the dugout taking photos of the last practice before Thursday’s game when the shooting started.
A gunman now identified as James T. Hodgkinson opened fire at the practice, injuring four people including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, two Capitol Police officers and an aide.
LaVor said he was alive because of quick thinking by people at the game and the heroic actions of the Capitol Police, who were there as part of Scalise’s security detail.
“We didn’t have weapons,” LaVor told the Washington Examiner. “Everybody who was on that field was alive because of the Capitol Police.”
Once shots started, LaVor hit the deck and he heard eight shots go off.
LaVor then thought the shooting was over and was about to stand up to see what was going on.
“I started to look up and somebody in the dugout saved my life because they said get down and get next to the wall,” he said. “Apparently a bullet came into the dugout and took out some cinder block.”
LaVor doesn’t know who it was that shouted for him to stay down, but he is grateful.
“I believe my life was saved because whoever shouted out because I stupidly would have stood up because I thought it was over,” he said.
LaVor noted there wasn’t widespread panic and confusion among the members of Congress and staff members still in the dugout.
“Somebody said get next to the wall. I didn’t think there was panic in there,” he said. “I thought whoever was making those directions was being very responsible.”
LaVor lavished praised on the Capitol Police for their actions that he said prevented any fatalities.
“I can’t say enough how much I thank the Capitol Police,” he said. “They were the ones who saved everybody.”
The ball field was right next to a local YMCA where about 40 people were working out in the gym at the time of the shooting.
Owen Britton was one of those members who were working out and leaving the gym when he saw the shooting take place.
Britton said he saw the shooter crouch behind a structure and he had an “AK-47 type weapon. He was exchanging fire with someone behind a black SUV.”
He added people in the gym weren’t allowed to leave so they stayed in the gym area watching TV news reports on the shooting unfolding right next to them.
Ryan Walsh and Alex Heimberg, both 19, were working out in the YMCA’s weight room when the shooting took place.
“It’s not something I really imagined being a part of,” Walsh said.
Walsh said people who were in the basement weight room quickly funneled into a nearby locker room. The two, who are on college summer break, said they were in the YMCA for hours.
“All of us basically sprinted to the locker room,” he said.
Walsh had the foresight to text his mother, who didn’t know he went for an early morning workout.
“I texted her once I knew about the situation,” he said.
