Va. Shooter's Wife Expresses Horror, Asks Media To Go Away
(CBS) -- The wife of Alexandria, Va. Shooter James Hodgkinson is speaking out for the first time.
Sue Hodgkinson talked with reporters briefly in Belleville, Illinois, on Thursday – in part to ask the media to stop disrupting the neighborhood. She said she feels "horrible" about what happened.
"I can't believe he did this," she said, visibly upset. "I just want you all to go away and leave my neighbors in peace. They don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. My daughters don't deserve all this."
She said she had not seen her husband since March.
James Hodgkinson, 66, disappeared from the downstate community earlier this year, authorities say. The former home inspector lived out of a vehicle in the Washington D.C. area and on Wednesday opened fire on Republican lawmakers who were practicing for a charity baseball game. He had published anti-Republican tirades in the newspaper and on social media.
Hodgkinson died from his injuries in a shootout with police. High-ranking Congressman Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, was seriously injured and remains hospitalized.