Violence & Brawls ·
Returning Fire at a Congressional Baseball Practice
Injured Capitol Police agents Crystal Griner and David Bailey engaged the gunman until Alexandria officers arrived. A federal bravery citation also records the aid given to the attacker afterward.
When a gunman opened fire at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 14, 2017, Capitol Police special agents Crystal Griner and David Bailey radioed for help and returned fire. Both were injured. Their federal Badge of Bravery citation says they diverted the attacker from the unarmed group on the field and bought time for local police to arrive.
Griner and Bailey were assigned to protect House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was practicing with the Republican congressional baseball team at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park. ABC News reported that Special Agent Henry Cabrera was also protecting Scalise and was not injured. Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa commended all three agents for their response.
According to the citation, the gunman approached the fence along the third-base line at 7:06 a.m. carrying a rifle and a handgun, then opened fire on members of Congress, staff and family members. A rifle round struck Griner in the lower leg, but she continued firing from cover near her assigned vehicle. Bailey was struck in the ankle by shell fragments while returning fire.
By 7:12 a.m., three Alexandria police officers had arrived. Kevin Jobe crossed an open area to reach Bailey. Nicole Battaglia drew the gunman’s attention after coming under fire, while Alexander Jensen exchanged fire with him from behind a vehicle.
Jensen shot the attacker in the right hip, causing him to drop his rifle. The gunman then picked up his handgun and resumed firing. Jobe and Bailey moved toward him, and Bailey struck him in the chest; Jensen then struck his left hip. The attacker dropped the handgun and collapsed. He had wounded five people: Scalise, Griner, Bailey, a congressional aide and a lobbyist. “Had they not been there, it would have been a massacre,” Senator Rand Paul, who was at the practice, said afterward.
After the gunman was placed under arrest, the citation records, Jobe and Bailey began life-saving measures on him. He later died of his wounds at the hospital.