The FBI’s Briefing On The GOP Baseball Shooting Couldn’t Have Been More Bizarre

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The FBI admits that Hodgkinson:

vociferously raged against Republicans in online forums,

had a piece of paper bearing the names of six members of Congress,

was reported for doing target practice outside his home in recent months before moving to Alexandria,

had mapped out a trip to the DC area,

took multiple photos of the baseball field he would later shoot up, three days after the New York Times mentioned that Republicans practiced baseball at an Alexandria baseball field with little security,

lived out of his van at the YMCA directly next door to the baseball field he shot up,
legally purchased a rifle in March 2003 and 9 mm handgun “in November 2016,”
modified the rifle at some point to accept a detachable magazine and replaced the original stock with a folding stock,

rented a storage facility to hide hundreds of rounds of ammunition and additional rifle components,

asked “Is this the Republican or Democrat baseball team?” before firing on the Republicans,

ran a Google search for information on the “2017 Republican Convention” hours before the shooting,

and took photos at high-profile Washington locations, including the east front plaza of the U.S. Capitol and the Dirksen Senate Office.

We know from other reporting that the list was of six Republican Freedom Caucus members, including Rep. Mo Brooks, who was present at the practice.

So what does the FBI decide this information means? Well, the takeaway of the briefing was characterized well by the Associated Press headline about it: “FBI: Gunman who shot congressman had no target in mind.” The Associated Press reported the FBI:

believes the gunman “had no concrete plan to inflict violence” against Republicans,

“had not yet clarified who, if anyone, he planned to target, or why,”
believes he may have just “happened upon” the baseball game the morning of June 14, and that the attack appeared “spontaneous,”
are unclear on the “context” of Hodgkinson’s note with six names of members of Congress,

does not believe that photographs of the baseball field or other sites “represented surveillance of intended targets,” and

“painted a picture of a down-on-his-luck man with few future prospects.”

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