BELLEVILLE, Ill. _ One of the biggest questions coming out of the shooting in Virginia: Who was James T. Hodgkinson?
Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, was named by police as the shooter at the congressional baseball practice Wednesday morning. President Donald Trump confirmed in a statement mid-morning that he died shortly after he was taken into custody.
Sometimes going by "Tom," his middle name, Hodgkinson was born in 1951 to Deloris and James J. Hodgkinson. He was one of three children and grew up in Belleville, graduating from Belleville West High School in 1968.
Hodgkinson joined the high school wrestling and track teams as a freshman in 1965, according to the school yearbook. In his sophomore and junior years, yearbooks list him as a member of the varsity wrestling team at Belleville West.
No activities or clubs were listed in Hodgkinson's senior yearbook.
While others of his family moved away, Hodgkinson settled in Belleville with his wife, Sue.
Beginning in 1969, he studied aviation at Belleville Area College, which later became Southwestern Illinois College. Then in the fall of 1971, he transferred to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, then only six years open in its current location. Hodgkinson took two classes in one term, according to SIUE spokesman Doug McIlhagga, but did not complete a degree.
Five years later he opened JTH Construction, which he operated for nearly 20 years, according to his Facebook page. In 1994, JTH Construction became JTH Inspections, a home inspection and air quality testing service that he listed as closed in 2016.
His life was struck with tragedy in 1996. The Hodgkinsons' foster daughter, Wanda Ashley Stock, killed herself at the age of 17 in a brutal manner: Ashley doused herself with gasoline and set herself on fire inside her car on a rural road south of Belleville.
The Hodgkinsons spoke to the News-Democrat at the time, saying they did not know what triggered a "very practical, level-headed girl" to kill herself. Later they discovered there had been a previous suicide attempt before Ashley came to live with them, and that hours before she completed her suicide, her boyfriend had broken up with her.
Ashley was a senior at Belleville West High School at the time. She had only been living with the Hodgkinsons a few months, but had been a ward of the state since 1984. Her biological parents terminated their parental rights in 1989. She had left a note in her room instructing her inheritance to be given to a close friend.
Then in December 2002, the Hodgkinsons assumed legal guardianship for their 12-year-old great-niece, Cathy Lynn Putnam. Cathy's biological parents' rights had been revoked, and she had been in foster care or with the Hodgkinsons since she was 4 years old. Her name was eventually changed to Cathy Hodgkinson.
However, in the couple's last annual report regarding the girl, they said she was returned to state custody on July 7, 2006; court documents did not state why the judge took that action.
In a court document filed on Dec. 26, 2006, the Hodgkinsons wrote: "Since then His Honor has seen fit to award guardianship of Cathy to our next-door neighbors, which is a quite stressful and uncomfortable situation for our family."
Law enforcement officials have not said what they believe Hodgkinson's motive may have been for the shooting. Hodgkinson's social media was marked by politics; he took part in a protest against income inequality at the Belleville Post Office in 2012 and often wrote letters to the News-Democrat in protest against conservative policies. He was a strong Bernie Sanders supporter and apparently volunteered for Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, and had repeatedly taken a Democratic ballot in recent elections.
In March, Hodgkinson was warned to stop firing his gun at trees on his property after neighbor complaints. He had a valid Illinois Firearms Owner's Identification card at the time. In 2006, his shotgun was confiscated after a domestic fight between Hodgkinson, his daughter and two of his daughter's friends. The charges were later dismissed. He has had other minor charges, including a DUI and resisting arrest charge that was dismissed in 1993, for which he received court supervision.
According to news reports, Sue Hodgkinson has told reporters that Hodgkinson had been living in Alexandria, Va. for the past few months. There was no record of divorce filings in St. Clair County, however. Sue Hodgkinson's employer, a local accounting firm, declined to comment.
His brother, Michael Hodgkinson, told the New York Times that James was unhappy about the election of President Donald Trump and had gone to Washington, D.C., to protest. However, he also said that while James was "engaged in politics," he otherwise led a normal life and had told his wife he would be returning home soon because he missed her and their dogs.
Instead, he is accused of opening fire on the baseball practice, injuring five people, including the House Republican whip.
Social media accounts for both James Hodgkinson and his wife were deluged with abusive comments ever since law enforcement named him as the shooter. Facebook has apparently taken down Hodgkinson's accounts.
