From the WashPo:
“For weeks, James T. Hodgkinson sat in the lobby of the YMCA in Alexandria, focused on his laptop and carrying a gym bag, but never working out. His perch looked on to the field where the Republican baseball team had been practicing daily for about two months.”
Google Street shows the YMCA is maybe 75 feet from the field, across the parking lot.
That is definitely a sign of premeditation but I think that is included in “Scouted the scene before the attack.”
“...Hodgkinson sat in the lobby of the YMCA in
Alexandria...”
And while he was there he struck up a friendship with the Mayor, or former Mayor, of Alexandria. The guy was interviewed a few times on cable news shows.