Congressional Shooting Survivor Matt Mika Speaks Out About The Moment Gunman Opened Fire On GOP

Matt Mika, a lobbyist who was gunned down during the GOP Congressional baseball practice is speaking out about the horrific event.

It felt like “time stopped.”

Mika, one of five people shot, told Good Morning America he would never forget the moment he locked eyes with Hodgkinson.

According to Daily Mail:

The incident was over within just six minutes but Mika said it felt like so much longer than that.

‘Time stopped, it just stopped, he said.

 

Mika said that during the fracas, he saw the 10-year-old son of Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who he grabbed and pushed into the safety of a concrete dugout.

 

He then ducked behind an SUV in the parking lot when he was shot again. He believes that the fact his hands were up by his head, protected him from what could have been a fatal head shot.

 

Mika also praised Griner and Bailey who protected him despite suffering their own injuries.

 

He said Griner was shot in the ankle, but ‘used her gun to get back up and re-engaged in the shooter.’

 

‘I wouldn’t be here right now,’ Mika said, if they hadn’t been at the game. ‘And we’d be talking about a massacre.’

 

Hodgkinson opened fire from behind the third base dugout while the players were on the field. Senator Rand Paul, who was at the scene but was not injured, described it as a ‘killing field’, while Michigan Rep. Mike Bishop said the men were ‘sitting ducks’ for the gunman and his M4 rifle.

 

Moments before the attack, a man – thought to be the shooter – asked if the group were Republicans or Democrats, Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis said. North Carolina Rep. Mike Walker told NBC News the ‘gunman was there to kill as many Republican members as possible.’

 

Bishop described how one of the cops stood his ground to return fire as the congressmen and at least one of their children dove for cover in a dugout and Scalise dragged himself across the field after being hit, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

 

‘As we were standing here this morning, a gunman walked up to the fence line and just began to shoot. I was standing at home plate and he was in the third base line,’ he told CBS Detroit. ‘He had a rifle that was clearly meant for the job of taking people out, multiple casualties, and he had several rounds and magazines that he kept unloading and reloading.’

 

He said: ‘The only reason why any of us walked out of this thing, by the grace of God, one of the folks here had a weapon to fire back and give us a moment to find cover.’

 

‘We were inside the backstop and if we didn’t have that cover by a brave person who stood up and took a shot themselves, we would not have gotten out of there and every one of us would have been hit – every single one of us.

 

‘He was coming around the fence line and he was looking for all of us who had found cover in different spots. But if we didn’t have return fire right there, he would have come up to each one of us and shot us point-blank.’

 

Lawmakers who witnessed the incident described how Hodgkinson shot Scalise, who was lay bleeding for several minutes but was unable to get medical attention because of the active shooter situation.

 

He indicated he was able to get control of the external wound, but wasn’t aware of whether there were internal injuries or internal blood loss. Rep. Mo Brooks described working with Wenstrup to use a belt to make a tourniquet to stop blood loss.

 

President Donald Trump also praised the two cops for their ‘heroic actions’, saying ‘many lives’ would have been lost if they had not been there.

Just thinking about it gives me chills. This is absolutely horrific. And to think a 10-year-old boy was there… this will stay with him for the rest of his life.

I am so grateful that this madman didn’t cause more damage, or take anyone’s life.