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June 15, 2017
Peter Bergen and David Sterman co-authored an article in CNN detailing the background of James T. Hodgkinson, the man who attacked the Republican congressional baseball practice:
James T. Hodgkinson, the man who carried out Wednesday's shooting at a baseball practice by congressional Republicans, was a small-business owner from Illinois. He also was charged 11 years ago with domestic abuse.
In 2006 Hodgkinson was arrested on charges of domestic battery after, according to a police report, he went into a neighbor's house to find his daughter, used bodily force to damage a door, grabbed his daughter by her hair, and when she escaped him and ran to a car, used a knife to cut her seat belt. He punched the neighbor, and brandished a shotgun, firing one round, the police report said.
The charges against Hodgkinson were later dismissed, but the allegations have a new resonance after Wednesday's shooting attack. A history of association with domestic violence is relatively common among those who have committed political violence in the United States.
Of the 48 perpetrators of lethal political violence in the United States since 9/11 -- whether they were motivated by jihadist, far right or black nationalist ideologies -- 11, or almost a quarter, had allegations or convictions of domestic violence or sexual crimes in their past, according to an analysis of New America's research.