House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and other survivors of the 2017 congressional baseball practice shooting disagree with the FBI’s “suicide by cop” designation. They are asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to declare it a case of domestic terrorism.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said during a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee last week, “Much to our shock that day, the FBI concluded that this was a case of the attacker seeking suicide by cop.”
Speaking to Wray he said, “Director, you want suicide by cop, you just pull a gun on a cop. It doesn’t take 136 rounds. It takes one bullet.”
He noted, “Both the DHS and the (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) published products labeling this attack as a domestic violent extremism event, specifically targeting Republican members of Congress. The FBI did not.”
Wenstrup also wrote a letter to Wray arguing “the conclusion defies logic and contradicts the publicly known facts about the perpetrator and the attack.”
Expressing his frustration with the FBI, Wenstrup said the agency “failed to conduct thorough interviews during the initial investigation.”
He concluded his letter, “I request that the FBI Counterterrorism Division promptly review the investigative findings, interview all relevant witnesses, and update, as appropriate, the investigative conclusions – including an internal investigation of how the FBI reached its ‘suicide by cop’ conclusion.”
Several survivors of the attack told Fox News “they felt the FBI was attempting to downplay the political factor in an attempt to ease national tensions and that many of them vocally objected to the decision during the 2017 briefing and were offended by it,” as the publication reports.
According to several survivors, the attack did not appear to be designed to commit suicide by cop.
Scalise told Fox News on Thursday the shooter “went there to kill Republicans, and he had a list of Republicans in his pocket,” adding, “He specifically asked if that was the Republican practice before he went back and got his guns and came out. He didn’t know the security detail with me were cops, because they were plainclothes officers.”
Calling the FBI’s designation “disturbing,” Scalise explained, “It’s not fair to the police officers who were involved that day, both Capitol Police, as well as the Virginia police, who acted bravely and heroically doing their jobs.”
The gunman opened fire at a baseball practice where 24 Republican lawmakers and over a half-dozen other people were in attendance.