Married Lesbian Capitol Police Officer Credited With “Fatal Shot” That Brought Down Virginia Shooter

The New York Daily News reports:

Republican lawmakers who survived the rampage at an early morning baseball practice say it would have been a massacre if not for a pair of Capitol Hill police officers. Special Agents Crystal Griner and David Bailey, at the practice because they’re on House Majority Whip Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) security detail, returned fire when a man began shooting up the field. Bailey suffered an unspecified injury and Griner was shot in the ankle — but both still fired back at the gunman. Law-enforcement officials didn’t say who fired the fatal shot, but witness Jeff Flake, a Republican senator from Arizona, said it was Griner who took down the shooter, James Hodgkinson.

CNN reports:

Accompanied by his wife, Trump arrived around sunset for the surprise visit to MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Rep. Steve Scalise, the number three House Republican, underwent surgery at the facility earlier Wednesday for wounds sustained in a shooting, which took place at a baseball practice just outside Washington on Wednesday morning. The couple brought two large bouquets of white flowers for the injured lawmaker’s wife, as well as for Crystal Griner, a US Capitol Police officer also wounded in the gun attack. Inside the facility, Trump sat next to Scalise’s bed and spoke with his family, according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer. He also spoke with Griner and her wife, as well as hospital doctors.

Politics USA opines:

In honoring these heroes, people should also take a moment to consider their humanity. Consider how the laws dealt with in Congress would impact these folks who just saved their lives or the lives of their colleagues. The folks being hurt by laws bandied about in Congress aren’t nameless, bad “others.” They are sometimes people of stunning courage like Crystal Griner. Humanity matters. It’s all we have, when all else is stolen and stripped away. Instead of focusing on delegitimizing Crystal’s marriage, Republicans should take this opportunity to look into the eyes and heart of a patriot who just so happens to love someone of her own gender and do the right thing.


NOTE: I’ve replaced the earlier basketball photo with something more suitable now that it’s available.