A foster child of Congressional baseball shooter James T. Hodgkinson killed herself by dousing herself in gasoline and setting herself on fire, The New York Times reports.
Hodkingson and his wife could not have children of their own and took in multiple foster children throughout the last two decades. The couple professed ignorance as to the motives of their young foster child’s suicide saying she was a “very practical, levelheaded girl” and noting that her boyfriend had broken up with her prior to the event.
Hodkingson was an increasingly violent individual who displayed a penchant for violence with his 13 year old grandniece, who he legally adopted in 2002. She reportedly began staying with Hodkingson’s next door neighbor to get away from the household and sometimes hung out there with her friends, which sparked a disturbing violent incident in 2006.
The local police report notes that Hogkingson forced his way through his neighbors house, broke into the room where his grandniece was with a friend, and dragged her out by her hair. He punched the young girl’s friend in the face and then forced his niece into the car where he tried to choke her. When the friend’s boyfriend tried to stop him, Hogkingson hit him in the head with the butt of a shotgun and fired one round.
“According to his foster daughter, he was always angry,” his grandniece’s friend told The Daily Beast.”She was really unhappy there. She had come over to get away from them.”
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