“Shots overhead from both sides”: Sen. Jeff Flake gives harrowing account of baseball field shooting

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) gave a firsthand account on CNN Wednesday morning of a harrowing scene after House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was shot at a baseball practice with members of Congress.

Here’s what Flake said he saw and did:

We were going to batting practice. A number of members and staff fielding. Steve Scalise was on second base. All of a sudden we heard a very loud shot. Everybody thought, that sounds like a gun.

The gunman was over by the third-base dugout with a view of the field. A couple more shots and we knew what it was. I remember seeing some gravel, shots coming near us. We climbed into the dugout and tried to get our own people engaged, some people were calling 911.

It was at least 10 minutes because we were applying pressure to one of the staffers who was shot in the leg. We could see Steve Scalise in the field. He dragged himself from near second base into the field just to be further from the gunman. I wanted to get to him but there were still shots going overhead from both sides.

Finally when we heard the shooter was down, I ran out to Steve and started putting pressure. And then did that for about 10 or 15 minutes. We did that until the medics arrived.

Flake also told the local ABC News station that he “got Steve Scalise’s phone and called his wife. I just didn’t want her to wake up and hear the news and not know what was going on.”

Details are still unfolding on what happened in the shooting. You can see Vox’s coverage here.