Flake was on the field during practice for the annual Congressional Baseball Game when the Congressional baseball shooting happened on June 14 , 2017 . He said the attendees were like " sitting ducks " and that it was likely that the Capitol Police saved their lives : All of a sudden , we heard a very loud shot . Everybody thought ' sounds like a gun ' . The gunman was over by the third base dugout , with a clear view of the field and everybody on it . A lot of us dove into the dugout and tried to get as many as we could , but at that point , there was firing behind us from the security detail , the Capitol Police , and I started yelling back , ' are you friendly ? ' – making sure that it was our guy , because we did n't know if there were other shooters that had us surrounded , and were coming into the dugout . Former President Obama called Flake that morning to extend his best wishes and prayers for the victims . Flake had flown with Obama from Washington , D.C. , to Arizona in 2011 after the shooting of then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
Congressional baseball shooting
2017 Congressional baseball shooting
Jeff Flake