The deceased man behind the June 14 congressional baseball practice shooting in Alexandria, Va., acted alone and was not connected to any terrorist group, the FBI said on Wednesday.
“At this time, the FBI has assessed the shooter James Hodgkinson acted alone. We also assess that there was no connection to terrorism,” Andrew Veil, assistant director in charge of the FBI field office, told reporters at a press conference in Washington Wednesday morning. “It was an assault on a member of Congress, assault on a federal officer.”
The FBI is just one week into its investigation into what motivated Hodgkinson to shoot four people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park last week. But, the bureau and local police have already dug up lots of details about Hodgkinson’s activities before the shooting.
Hodgkinson had owned multiple laptops and firearms, as well as a storage unit in Alexandria that he visited 43 times between April and June, including the night before the shooting rampage, FBI special agent in charge Tim Slater told reporters.
Review of the laptops indicated the 66-year-old white man had left his home in Belleville, Ill., sometime in March and traveled to the Washington metropolitan region. He conducted web searches about Northern Virginia prior to making the drive from Illinois.
Shortly before leaving Belleville, local police were called to his residence over complaints of target practice on the property. Police told Hodgkinson to keep his noise down but did not arrest him.
Hodgkinson arrived in Alexandria with two legally purchased firearms, including a SKS 7.62-caliber rifle he bought in March 2003 and a 9-mm handgun he also purchased in November 2016.
The FBI believes Hodgkinson, who had been living out of his vehicle in the parking lot of the YMCA on East Monroe Avenue, exited with the two weapons. He walked over to the adjacent baseball field and opened fire. Two Capitol Police officers returned fire. Alexandria police officers responded to a call over the radio at 7:09 a.m. that shots had been fired. Five minutes later, he was shot.
Investigators found 9-mm and 7.62-mm casings at the scene. The SKS file had been modified to accept a detachable magazine, while the original stock had been replaced with a folding stock.
Following the shooting, the FBI seized property from three locations and Hodgkinson’s person, including the scene of the shooting, the local storage facility he started renting April 16 and his Belleville home.
A note found on his body contained the names of six members of Congress, though no additional context was included on the paper. A search of his web history revealed a strong opposition to the Republican Party, but Hodgkinson never threatened a GOP politician online.
Agents who searched the browsing history on one of his computers found he had searched two of the unnamed members. Hodgkinson was also carrying a note with a sketch of several streets in Washington, D.C., but said “it was not deemed to be of investigative significance.”
The storage facility contained a laptop computer, more than 200 rounds of ammunition, the receipt of Hodgkinson’s 9-mm gun purchase an another SKS rifle component. Investigators found another laptop, cell phone and digital camera in Hodgkinson’s vehicle.
The night before the shooting, the gunman looked up the “2017 Republican Convention” and an online map of Alexandria to Belleville. A family member told investigators he called two days before the incident expressing a desire to return to Illinois. He visited a personal finance account and one of his Facebook accounts. He did not use the computer the next morning.
Hodgkinson’s phone contained pictures and videos he took during trips to the National Mall, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court and monuments between April 11 and April 26. He also took photos at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park on April 15.
“At this point in the investigation, the FBI does not believe that these photographs represented surveillance of intended targets, however, we continue to learn more about Hodgkinson’s recent activities,” the FBI said in a statement released Wednesday.
The probe is ongoing and officials have not shared what a motive for the shooting.
