daily. c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. it is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. tonight on c-span, reaction to today's shooting of a member of congress and congressional staffers at a baseball field in alexandria, virginia. next, the fbi and local law enforcement given update on the investigation.house leaders paul ryan and nancy pelosi , followed by senate leaders and president trump. this morning, as a republican congressional baseball team held a practice, a gunman opened fire and shot five people, including house majority whip stevens police. he remains in critical condition. this afternoon, the fbi and local police gave an update on the shooting. it is 15 minutes.

mr. slater: good afternoon. hello again. my name is timothy slater. i'm the special agent in charge of the f.b.i.'s washington field office. i'm here to provide an investigative update on the shooting that occurred this morning. i would like to thank the alexandria police department, u.s. capitol police, and medical response teams who responded to the scene this morning for their quick and decisive actions. actually saving lives. i remind you that this is an active investigation and details continue to unfold. i stressed this earlier and i'm going to underscore it now. that the f.b.i. is not going to talk about the character or nature in which we are investigating this case other than to say we continue to work this as an active investigation

and an ongoing matter. there has been some confusion about the injuries involved. our statements sent out earlier today, this afternoon actually, identified the number of victims and their injuries. let me just review that quickly for you. five individuals were shot. a congressman, a united states capitol police officer, a congressional staffer, a lobbyist and the subject. an additional two individuals, a congressman and a capitol police officer, attained secondary injuries at the scene and were transported to local hospitals and treated. as for the subject.

and this is the only time that i'll be referring to him by his name. this afternoon we released a statement noting that the subject's name was james hodgkinson. 66 years of age. of belleville, illinois. he succumbed to his injuries at the hospital and the d.c. medical examiner has issued the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds to the torso. the f.b.i. has issued a seeking information poster, identifying the shooter. and it can be found at www.fbi.gov. while the subject is deceased, we continue to actively investigate the shooter's motives, acquaintances and whereabouts that led to today's incident. we will continue to have presence as we process a scene here in alexandria, and f.b.i.

agents are searching the shooter's home, his residence in belleville, illinois. the subject's vehicle was located on scene and has been swept by alexandria p.d. and the a.t.f. and we will be processing with our f.b.i. evidence recovery team as well. obviously we are looking to glean what we can from the contents regarding his electrical devices that he owned. law enforcement has reason to believe that the shooter has been in alexandria, virginia, area since march of this year. the f.b.i. has issued, again, seeking information poster that is located on our website, asking the public to come forward with information on the shooter. to the local alexandria community, we believe that the shooter has been living out of his vehicle in the vicinity of east monroe street.

therefore asking you to report any interactions that you've had with him. likewise, the subject traveled from his residence in illinois and we are asking and speaking with individuals who know him personally or who may have encountered him on his travels. if you have information, please call the f.b.i. 24-hour tip line at 1-800-call-fbi. and select option one, or visit tips.fbi.gov. so again, f.b.i.'s 24-hour tip line at 1-800-call-fbi and select option one. or visit tips.fbi.gov. all tips will remain confidential. no amount of information is too small. law enforcement will remain on scene until processing of the scene has been completed.

we ask that the local community, for your patient and your cooperation as we complete this task. further updates will be shared via written statements unless law enforcement collectively stand behind me advises otherwise. i'll open it up for a few questions in just a second but i want to turn it over to the chief for alexandria p.d. for a couple of comments. mr. brown: thank you, ladies and gentlemen. it's mike brown, chief of the alexandria police department. i just wanted to get back and give a status as to what we're doing in this community to try and reassure the community in terms of the safety and the security of our residents. right now we are canvassing the immediate area out here, doing door to door with our colleagues from the sheriff's department and the fire department. so that we can reassure people in the community that we believe this incident today is over. although the investigation will continue in this area for a while. we are also working with some of

our other departments in the city. for example, with the department of community and health services, to make services that are generally available for these kind of situations available to our community over the next couple of days. we care very much about our residents and the people that come to visit us in this city. and we're doing everything we can to reassure them that this is a safe community and that your government and your public safety personnel care deeply about it. that said, you'll see a lot of law enforcement, fire personnel working this area, trying to reassure them of such. so i thank you for that and as a part of the department, we will continue to work with the f.b.i. as they move forward on their investigation. thank you very much. reporter: did he have a vendetta against the congressman? >> i have no comment on that. reporter: do you know whose shots brought him down? mr. slater: it was a multiple

local law enforcement response so i do not know at this time. reporter: were both the capitol police and alexandria responded and shot him? mr. slater: i'm not going to comment on exactly who it was. it was multiple. reporter: can you give us an idea of what you're trying to run down on the weapon? mr. slater: the only comment i'll make about weapons is one handgun and one rifle. reporter: what you have learned about this? mr. slater: where they came from, who bought them, how he acquired them. all the logical investigative leads. reporter: county officers interacted with him in march in illinois. was it shortly after that that he came here? because you said he's been here since march. mr. slater: we believe he's been here since march. so i'm not going to comment on the specifics of that. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: i'm not exactly sure on that. don't have a comment on that. reporter: [inaudible]

mr. slater: no. that's what we're really asking the public to help us with. because we're just not sure at this time. reporter: \[inaudible] mr. slater: i'm not going to comment on that. the part of an active investigation. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: not going to comment on that either. so really, we're exploring all angles and we're not going to be limited by -- we'll let the facts take us where it goes. reporter: witnesses say he was handcuffed. was he still speaking and conscious when he was taken away? mr. slater: i can't comment on that, i'm not sure. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: that i'm not aware of, no, ma'am. reporter: do we know if he was working in the area? mr. slater: it appears he was not working. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: i'm not going to comment on the victims, what i have about the victims is what i've already provided. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: do we know? i believe -- yeah. not sure about that. i'll get back with you on that.

reporter: [inaudible] illinois plates. mr. slater: the only comment i'll make is a white cargo van. reporter: can the capitol police talk to us about their officers and particularly those who were injured and returned fire? mr. rogers: we did put a statement out today and the chief wants to commend special agent krystal griner, david bailey for their heroic and appropriate response to protecting members today. he's grateful for special agent griner who is in good condition at the hospital, having been shot in the ankle. and special agent baileys was treated and released, having sustained a minor injury during the incident. united states capitol police is dedicated to the mission of protecting the united states capitol, members of congress and

staff and the visiting public. and today we saw how our officers' extensive training was put into action. we also would like to thank our partner agencies, the f.b.i., a.t.f., u.s. park police, virginia state police, and especially the alexandria police for their work in helping us to respond and mitigate this incident. we continue to provide a robust and visible presence at the capitol complex and to monitor national and world events to provide a level of security that's appropriate for the u.s. congress. reporter: can you describe officer griner's response after being shot and continuing to work to get the suspect? mr. rogers: that's part of the ongoing investigation and i won't comment on it. reporter: -- [inaudible] -- the agents who were with congressman scalise, give us a sense -- is that a protective detail? what's their mission? are they always with him? mr. rogers: their particular assignment today was to protect the congressman. reporter: [inaudible] mr. rogers: today we had capitol police officers assigned to monitor the event. reporter: there's video and

audio recordings of the gun fire and the gun battle. it would appear to have been ferocious. by a layman's count, dozens and dozens of shots fired and people screaming, get down. can you describe what was -- what your officers and what the capitol officers were facing when they came in? mr. brown: i won't go into the specifics of the investigation but i've heard the video and i've talked to some of my officers at least. or some of them. it was not only chaotic but there was -- it was a combat situation. that's something that law enforcement is trained to do. our officers are trained to do. i'm very proud of the officers at a.p.d. and the officers from the capitol police who stood their ground and did their job. more will come out of this when the facts are known and the investigation's complete. but i couldn't be more proud of the alexandria police officers. reporter: they were up against somebody with a semiautomatic weapon and they were returning with handguns.

mr. brown: they did engage in a fire fight. i won't get into the details of that because that's also part of the investigation. we, like every other agency, rely on doing a shooting investigation. any time we have a discharge of weapons. and we are doing that right now. to get ahead of that would not be fair for the officers or the agency. we will deal in the facts apparrent.ecome our officers are doing fine. they were taken -- i'm very concerned about them, i'm personally concerned about them. they did great job today and i'm very proud of them. reporter: [inaudible] mr. brown: we received a call of shots fired as i mentioned this morning, at 7:09 in the morning. within three minutes we had all three units here. some of the units were here earlier. and they were engaged upon their arrival. i won't go into greater detail than that because of the investigation. reporter: did your officers have any encounters with mr.

hodgkinson in the months that he's been here until today? mr. brown: i can't speak to that right now because that's part of the investigation. i don't want to get ahead of the investigation. the f.b.i. has the lead. we're working with the f.b.i.. at some point in time we'll give that you information when it's available. ok, thank you. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: i'm not sure of that. we'll have to get back to you on one. reporter: any indication he discussed this with anyone else? was anyone else involved in this in any way? mr. slater: that's part of the investigation, i'm not going to comment on that. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: we have nobody else in custody. reporter: on the gun, sir -- [inaudible] mr. slater: i'm not going to comment about the gun. other than one handgun and one rifle. potentially. reporter: did he have the handgun on him or was it in the car? mr. slater: i'm not going to comment on the gun.

reporter: [inaudible] -- talk differently about president trump -- \[inaudible] -- mr. slater: no. i just ask that you let us run the investigation and we'll let the facts lie where they may. reporter: what can we expect out of the investigation? we know that you all concluded that he was the shooter. what else can the f.b.i. -- what else will the final report provide you? what do you hope to answer? mr. slater: we hope to answer motive and why he was here and why did he what he did. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: i have no information about that. capitol police -- no, no information on that at the moment. i have no comment on it.

reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: what do you mean? reporter: why did he choose today? mr. slater: i have no indication of why today at all. no, sir. reporter: [inaudible] mr. slater: i can't speak to the security at the national park, sir. reporter: might this be a question of opportunity? he was living basically on the streets. -- on this street. the politicians came to him. might it simply be that this was an opportunity where previously he can pressed anger on social media lashed out? mr. slater: we'll figure that out as the investigation unfolds. >> just one more question. reporter: do you have any indication -- [inaudible] mr. slater: we have no indication that he knew this was going on. no, sir. reporter: you're not actively seeking any other suspects? mr. slater: no. we're asking for the community's help. and we'll run it out where it leads, where it goes. reporter: as of now you're not

asking the community, hey, be on the lookout for anybody else, you're not searching for anybody else? mr. slater: not at the moment but we don't know where this will lead. fair enough? thank you. thank you. >> we don't have any other press briefings planned at this location or otherwise. should we decide we have anything to deliver live to the media, we will certainly let your desks know that in advance.