Michigan Congressmen Describe Shooting Scene

wsjm949depend-2016-195
wsjm949depend-2016-195

Upper Peninsula Congressman Jeff Bergman credits the Capitol Police detail assigned to Majority Whip Steve Scalise for saving lives today after a gunman opened fire at a baseball practice of Republican lawmakers in Alexandria, Virginia. Congressman Bergman tells ABC News how the security detail sprang into action as soon as the shots rang out.

“Whip Scalise’s security team was engaging and they were coming from behind the first base dugout, where their vehicle was parked behind the fence and so they were engaging him, and when it was all over he was down, kind of behind home plate,” said Bergman, a freshman Republican lawmaker and a retired general. Congressman Scalise was shot in the hip. He is expected to make a full recovery. Congressman Fred Upton was not there, and his spokesman tells WSJM News no members of their staff were at the practice. Democrats were practicing a few miles away for the annual charity congressional baseball game, which was scheduled for tomorrow.

Congressman Mike Bishop, who represents the state’s 8th congressional district, says the only reason any of them survived is because there was armed security assigned to Scalise. He says officers returning fire gave them “a moment to find cover.” Bishop says without that, “we would not have gotten out of there, and every one of us would have been hit.”

Democrats were practicing a few miles away at the same time for the annual charity congressional baseball game, which had been scheduled to be played tomorrow.