6/14/2017--A Day of Infamy in America

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WILLIAMS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. It is special to be here tonight, and I thank my friend for calling us together to remember this day.

To me, it is like it was yesterday. I got up that morning just like we all did, got ready, and went to practice. My situation was that I was hitting ground balls to Trent Kelly. I finished with Trent and went around and started hitting balls. I said to Scalise: ``I am coming at you.''

I remember I threw the ball up, and as soon as I hit it with the bat to Scalise, a shot went off. Little did I know that the shooter was probably 30 feet or 20 feet behind me. I did not know that. A shot went off, and Trent Kelly yelled: ``He has got a gun. Head for cover:

When he said that, my instincts told me to get to the dugout. Fortunately for all of us, the dugouts were dugouts. They were dug into the ground, not like today where they are flat.

I remember I ran to the dugout and jumped, and it was like jumping into a swimming pool with no water. I remember as I was in the air heading into the dugout, what went through my mind was: I am not surprised because of the anger we have up here.

When I hit the dugout, I slid all the way on the concrete to the dugout and slid into the arms of two of my teammates, Jeff Flake and Mo Brooks. We three were in the corner, and as Brad said, this guy was firing. There were actually some shells going into the dugout.

Two of the coaches, Larry Hardy and Donnie Watson, were in that dugout. We were all trying to stay away from the action.

Out of nowhere came my aide who worked for me and who came with me to every batting practice, Zach Barth, and Zach had been in center field shagging balls.

When the shooting started, he ran to the right-field foul pole to get as far away as he could from the shooter, but the shooter followed him and shot at him 10 times and missed him. Zach decided the only way he was going to stay alive was to get to the dugout, and he ran to the dugout.

During that running from the right-field line to the dugout, he got shot in the leg. He dove into the dugout, as I did, not knowing I was there. He dove into the dugout and dove right into my arms. At that moment, you had a bonding of a 67-year-old man and a 24-year-old kid. I held him in my arms, and he was saying: ``I'm hit, I'm hit.''

Mo Brooks, Jeff Flake, and I were there. We didn't know what to do. We didn't have the experience that Dr. Wenstrup and others had had, but God kicked in. Mo Brooks removed his belt, and we tightened it around his leg to stop the bleeding. We all hunkered down.

Then we heard that Scalise was down. We couldn't see it. We were in the dugout, but we heard that Steve had been hit.

These shots were going off, and we didn't hear anything from the Capitol Police. In our situation, we thought they had probably been killed. We decided if this guy came around where we were, we were going to charge him. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't, but we had made that commitment to each other that we would do that.

Then, we heard the sirens, and we were praying for sirens. When you are praying for sirens, Mr. Speaker, it takes a long time, but we heard the sirens, which told us people knew we were in trouble. It was the Arlington Police. When they got there, we heard shooting. It was not just an AK-47 going off. We heard 9 millimeters that were going off.

We praised God for Crystal Griner and David Bailey. I remember being in the dugout and looking up, and David Bailey was down in the dugout and shooting like this at the perpetrator to keep him from coming around to the rest of us.

Finally, it ended. I remember somebody started yelling: ``Everybody out of the dugout. Everybody out of the dugout.''

I told the guys I was with: ``I'm not getting out of the dugout. I don't know who that is. I am staying here.''

About that time, we saw the police, and we got out of the dugout. A helicopter, I think, had come to get Steve, if I remember. There was a lot of chaos. People gathered around together. Dr. Wenstrup saw me, and I had been injured in the ankle, and he called an ambulance for me and said: ``Get him to the hospital.''

It was the first time I had ever been in an ambulance, and they took me to the hospital. That night I was in the hospital, and Brad came to see me. I will never forget that. President Trump called me, and Vice President Pence called me. He said: ``Should we play the game tomorrow?'' I said: ``Absolutely. We can't let this end like this.''

In my situation, I had got hit with shrapnel, and Dr. Wenstrup knows exactly what I had, but I had a lot of treatment. There was a decision made that if I didn't get better in 2 weeks that I might lose my leg.

It was a life-changer for all of us. Steve Scalise and Brad Wenstrup showed courage like I have never seen. Even today, they show that courage. We have--what?--25 guys and gals. We all have our story, and everybody did their thing.

There were angels that day, the angel that my friend talked about, and the angel was as small as something as David Bailey's cell phone.

David reached to get his cell phone and moved it up. Because David thought we were surrounded by ISIS, which would have been another whole story, he reached for it and called for help and got hit. He got hit in the phone.

If it hadn't hit his phone, it might have hit him in the side, and it might have been a whole different story. He may not have made it.

I think that was an angel. I think the lock was an angel. It reminded me God was in charge. It could have been just the opposite.

I remember in the dugout, as the shooting was going on, two things went through my mind. First of all, people asked me: ``Roger, are you afraid to die.'' I was not afraid of dying, but I did hope that my wife remembered I want the song, ``Put me in, coach, I'm ready to play today'' at my funeral, and I wanted to make sure I made it because I had a granddaughter coming in October.

God was in charge. He took care of us. The perpetrator paid for his act. The Arlington Police saved us; David Bailey saved us; and Crystal Griner saved us. For that, we are all owing to them for the rest of our lives.

It is not often you get to hug somebody who saved your life and be able to thank him like we were able to.

It is a day I will never forgot, but like Brad and the others said, it just doesn't come along on this day, you wake up every morning thinking about it. Every time we have baseball practice, you think about it.

Those of us who were there wear bracelets. We wear bracelets today that have the date of the shooting and say, ``In God We Trust.''

It is a day I will never forget. I am thankful to God for letting us have another chance.

As Brad said, there were several articles written about the shooting. One article I read talked about if it had gone just the opposite, things politically and things in the world would have been much different. But they weren't.

Because of people like David Bailey, Crystal Griner, Brad, and others, and the Arlington Police, I get to see my granddaughter. I get to still coach the baseball team. I get to still be in Congress. I get to still love my wife. For that, I am grateful.

At the end of the day, we can do better than this. People should not be that angry, and that is a goal we should have as we are in Congress, to agree to disagree and not go out and kill people.

I will just end this with the way I end all of my speeches: In God we trust. Praise the Lord, and God bless America.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source