James T. Hodgkinson seemed to be quite an activist

Hodgkison’s Facebook page  includes several mentions of Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders

A Facebook page belonging to a person with the same name includes pictures of Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and rhetoric against President Trump, including a post that reads: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”
Charles Orear, 50, a restaurant manager from St. Louis, said in an interview Wednesday that he became friendly with Hodgkinson during their work together in Iowa on Sanders’s campaign.
Orear said Hodgkinson was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Orear said when told by phone about the shooting.
Orear described Hodgkinson as a “quiet guy” who was “very mellow, very reserved” when they stayed overnight at the home of a Sanders’s supporter in Rock Island, Ill., after canvassing for the Vermont senator.
“He was this union tradesman, pretty stocky, and we stayed up talking politics,” he said. “He was more on the really progressive side of things.”
When informed that the suspect’s Facebook page prominently features Sanders’s image, the senator’s spokesman Michael Briggs said: “Our prayers go out for a full recovery of Rep. Scalise, the congressional aides and police officers who were injured. We’ve got to stop the violence.”
Hodgkinson was among those taken to a hospital Wednesday. FBI special agent in charge Tim Slater said at a news conference that he did not know the condition of the suspected shooter.

 Wednesday morning’s shooter allegedly is 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson who died later in hospital from the injuries he sustained when security officers returned fire 

James T. Hodgkinson was a licensed home inspector

“With a background of over 30 years in construction, it was a logical & relatively easy move to becoming a Home Inspector,” he or someone affiliated with him apparently wrote on Yelp.
Hodgkinson reportedly opened fire on a group of Congressmen and their staff as they practiced for a congressional baseball game, wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and a staff member of Rep. Patrick Williams, as well as two Capitol Police officers assigned to protect Scalise.
Hodgkinson reportedly, first asked the group of lawmakers “whether it was Republicans or Democrats that were out there,” two lawmakers said.
Speaking to Fox Business Rep. Ron DeSantis [R-Fla], recounted encountering the would be shooter earlier: “We reported to police that there was a gentleman that confronted us when we were going to our car and he wanted to know whether it was Republicans or Democrats that were out there,” DeSantis said of the 7:10 a.m. parking-lot encounter in Alexandria, Va.
“We said it was Republicans and he kind of started walking to the field,” he added. “I don’t know that that was the guy, but I think it was important to put that information out there and it was a little bit different that someone would do that. He was really interested in wanting to know who was out there.” A short while later, the man who made the inquiry, shot and hit five people during the early morning baseball practice. Hodgkinson fired more than 50 shots, authorities and witnesses said.