A gunman who had been discharged by the Navy in 2011 after what an official described as a “pattern of misconduct” staged a two-hour rampage Monday at the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people and injuring eight before being shot to death by law enforcement officials.
Officials identified the man as Aaron Alexis, 34, a Navy veteran who had recently moved to three different hotels one night to escape voices and “some sort of microwave machine” that kept him from falling asleep. Alexis collected $395 per month in disabled vet’s benefits while working with a Florida-based Navy contractor.
Provoking terror
Alexis’s arrival on the base shortly before 8:15 a.m. Monday morning set off hours of terror and mayhem.
More than 3,000 workers were locked down in their offices while police officers, Navy security guards and FBI agents fought a running gun battle with the shooter, who was armed with a shotgun with the phrases “Better off this way” and “my ELF weapon” carved into it. It was hidden in his car, which was not subject to search because of his security clearance.
Alexis used the shotgun and a handgun taken from a security guard to shoot his way through two floors of the headquarters building of the Naval Sea Systems Command before being shot dead by police.
The dead ranged in age from 46 to 73. All were civilian Navy employees or contractors.
Years of problems
Alexis, a New York City native who had recently moved to Washington from Fort Worth, Texas, had a record that included at least two arrests in the last decade involving firearms.
One of the previous incidents occurred in 2010 in Fort Worth, when Alexis shot through the ceiling of his apartment. Tarrant County prosecutors said Monday they had not prosecuted the case after Alexis told them the gun had discharged accidentally while he was cleaning it.
In the other case, Seattle police arrested Alexis in 2004 after he purportedly shot out the tires of another man’s vehicle in what he later described to detectives as an anger-fueled “blackout.” Detectives spoke with Alexis’ father, who, according to the police department blog, told police Alexis had “anger management problems.”
A Navy official said that Alexis, who had served for four years as an aviation electrician’s mate, had multiple disciplinary infractions before his discharge in January 2011. But the incidents were not serious enough to prevent him from getting a job as an information technology worker on a Navy contract that involved equipment used by the Marine Corps Intranet network.
