News

One Alexandria Victim Is A Congressional Aide

by Cate Carrejo
Alex Wong/Getty Images News/Getty Images

A horrifying incident Wednesday morning left multiple people injured, including one young man who tragically happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Zack Barth, a GOP baseball practice shooting victim, is a congressional aide to Texas Representative Roger Williams. The precise nature of his injuries aren't known, but the young staffer should be on the road to recovery already.

According to CBS affiliate KHOU, Barth grew up in Houston and attended the University of Texas at Austin. He worked as an intern and then a staff member on the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, and his former co-workers were quick to post online wishing Barth a speedy recovery. "My prayers are with Zach and everyone hurt in this morning's shooting. Hats off to the U.S. Capitol Police for their heroic response," Bush tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

The shooting occurred around 7:15 a.m. ET at the Simpson baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, about a 20-minute drive from Capitol Hill. A single shooter opened fire while a group of Republican representatives practiced for the traditional bipartisan congressional baseball game. It's not clear why Barth was in attendance, since only elected representatives play on the teams.

The exact nature of Barth's injuries is still unclear, but multiple sources have reported that he is expected to make a full recovery. Barth himself was able to post on Facebook and confirm his positive prognosis. "I got shot this morning at the baseball fields but I am in the hospital and ok. Thank you for the thoughts and prayers," Barth said in a post that Yahoo News journalist Jon Ward shared on Twitter.

In addition to Barth, two law enforcement officers, one Congressional representative, and the shooter were the only ones injured. Plus, the body count could have been a lot worse, according to Senator Rand Paul, who spoke with MSNBC after the shooting.

"Everybody probably would have died, except for the fact that the Capitol Hill Police were there," Sen. Rand Paul told MSNBC while describing the scene during the shooting. "The only reason they were there is that we had a member of leadership on our team. If Scalise wouldn't have been on the team... By him being there, he probably saved everybody else's life, because if you don't have a leadership person there, there would have been no security there."

Barth should make a swift and speedy recovery, and will have plenty of years of public service left.