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Friday, Apr. 23, 2021

Did the FBI label the death of the Congressional baseball shooting gunman a ‘suicide by cop’?

Austin Tannenbaum, Gigafact
yes

In 2017, 66-year-old James Hodgkinson opened fire on Congressional Republicans practicing for an annual baseball match against Democrats. Hodgkinson shot and seriously wounded GOP Whip Steve Scalise, and the Capitol Police killed Hodgkinson. Politico recently reported that lawmakers were privately informed that the FBI ruled Hodgkinson’s death a “suicide by cop,” meaning Hodgkinson perpetrated the act with the intention of getting killed.

Some lawmakers objected to the ruling, claiming the attack was politically motivated. The FBI previously made note of “anti-Republican views” on Hodgkinson's social media and a witness account of Hodgkinson asking a lawmaker if the Democrats or the Republicans were practicing the morning of the shooting.

Separately, the FBI reported that “you could tell things were not going well” in Hodgkinson’s life at the time.

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