Washington Navy Yard shooting: Shooter allowed to buy gun despite mental issues, Navy misconduct
HANDOUT/REUTERS
Washington
Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis allegedly suffered from various
psychiatric issues, but was not deemed mentally unfit by the military —
which could have stripped him of his security clearance.
He told Rhode Island cops he was hearing voices and being pursued by a
sinister trio who were using a “microwave machine” to send “vibrations
into his body.”
He was arrested in Seattle for shooting out a construction worker’s tires and blamed his rage on 9/11.
Google
An overhead image of
Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, VA. Sharpshooters released a
statement Tuesday saying that Aaron Alexis, who perpetrator in the
Washington Navy Yard shooting, bought a gun and ammunition there on
Sunday.
He was cited for misconduct while a Navy reservist at least eight times
— slapped with administrative charges that included insubordination and
disorderly conduct, according to reports.
And for the last month, he was reportedly seeing a shrink to deal with a
slew of problems, including paranoia and a sleep disorder.
MIKE THEILER/REUTERS
Entrance to Sharpshooters in Lorton, Virginia.
But when Aaron Alexis,
the doomed maniac who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard,
went to buy a gun on Saturday, he passed a federal background check with
flying colors. It wasn’t clear whether he was ever committed to a
psychiatric facility, an automatic disqualifier in the federal gun
background check. He hadn’t been convicted of a felony, clearing another
hurdle that would have made him ineligible.
ReasonTV via Youtube
An image of the interior of Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, VA.
The 34-year-old Queens-born killer unleashed hell on Monday less than 2
miles from the U.S. Capitol before he was cut down by police.
It was the last act of a twisted soul who reportedly tried to deal with
his demons by alternately drinking heavily, embracing Buddhism and
playing violent zombie video games for up to 16 hours at a time.
MIKE THEILER/REUTERS
A general view of Sharpshooters, a small arms range and gun shop, in Lorton, Virginia.
Now investigators are trying to figure out how Alexis was able to get
the Navy security clearance that helped him to get on the base — and why
nobody realized he was a ticking time bomb.
“It really is hard to believe that someone with a record as checkered
as this man could conceivably get, you know, clearance to get ...
credentials to be able to get on the base,” a clearly dismayed
Washington Mayor Vincent Gray said.
sharpshootersva.com
The homepage of the website of Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, VA.
Because of his troubled career as a reservist, Navy brass were trying
to boot him on a general discharge, but the process bogged down. In
2011, when Alexis asked to leave the service, he was instead given an
honorable discharge, the Washington Post reported, citing Navy sources.
That favorable sendoff allowed Alexis to land a job as a civilian worker
for a government subcontractor, giving him the security clearance.
The front page of the NY Daily News September 18, 2013.
In the wake of the shooting, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus ordered a
security review for all Navy and Marine Corps installations.
There were red flags galore that Alexis was losing his grip on Aug. 7
when he frantically called the cops in Newport, R.I., from his hotel
room. When they arrived, Alexis told them he’d had an argument with
somebody at an airport in Virginia. He said that person “sent three
people to follow him and to keep him awake by talking to him and sending
vibrations into his body,” a police report revealed.
ReasonTV via Youtube
An image of the interior of Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, VA.
Alexis told the officers it got so bad he moved three times in a single
night to get away from them. There were “voices speaking to him through
the wall, flooring and ceiling,” said Lt. William Fitzgerald of the
Newport police.
Alexis said “he was worried these people were going to harm him,”
Fitzgerald said. “He said he never had a history of mental illness.”
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
People exit the Washington
Navy Yard with their hands above their heads as police responded to the
reports of a shooter on the ground on Monday morning.
But Alexis was lying. He was already seeing a shrink, the Associated
Press reported. Still, the officers who encountered Alexis that night
saw no reason to bring him down to the station. The Newport police did
send a copy of their report to the Naval Station in that city, but
Fitzgerald said he doesn’t know what they did with it. “They said they
would follow up,” he said.
JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS
Evacuated workers from the
Navy Yard reunited with loved ones at a makeshift Red Cross shelter at
Washington Nationals’ ballpark.
In Fort Worth, Texas, where Alexis had been living, friends said they
watched his life unravel — and were acutely aware that he never went
anywhere without a loaded .45-caliber handgun.
One night in June 2011, when he was living in the apartment of the Thai
restaurant owner he worked for, Alexis accidentally fired his gun.
Nobody was hurt, but “Aaron was mortified,” the landlord’s wife, Kristi
Suthamtewakul, said.
JIM LO SCALZO/EPA
Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent
Gray speaks to the media near the scene of a shooting spree at the
Washington Navy Yard on Monday.
She called it an “isolated incident,” not knowing that in 2010 he’d
shot his weapon through the floor of an upstairs neighbor who annoyed
him. Or that in 2004, he fired on a construction worker’s car in
Seattle.
This past December, Alexis’ luck briefly seemed to improve when he
landed a contract job in Japan, Suthamtewakul said. But he returned full
of complaints.
MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images
A helicopter flies over the Navy Yard on Monday morning.
“He felt slighted on his benefits and wasn’t getting paid on time,” Kristi Suthamtewakul said.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Gunman Aaron Alexis stormed the Washington Navy Yard and killed 12 people. He was killed during the shootout with police.
Alexis was also unlucky in love. He had been to Thailand in March 2012
and told everyone when he returned that he had gotten married. But there
is no indication Alexis ever tied the knot.
Relatives of the Suthamtewakuls told Britain’s Channel 4 News said that
Alexis actually spent a lot of time at massage parlors when he was in
Thailand. And when Alexis was spurned by the Thai woman he had a crush
on, he blamed it on the fact that she “didn’t like black people.”
ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
Police stand guard outside
the Brooklyn residence of Cathleen Alexis, the mother of suspected
Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis.
Alexis moved out of the Suthamtewakuls’ house in July when it got too crowded.
He arrived in Washington on Aug. 25 and “stayed at local hotels in the
area since that time,” FBI Assistant Director Valerie Parlave said
Tuesday.
ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
Anthony Little, brother
in-law of suspected Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, speaks to
media near the Brooklyn residence of Cathleen Alexis on Monday.
On Saturday, Alexis drove out to Lorton, Va., where he bought a shotgun
and two boxes of shells from the SharpShooters Small Arms Range.
The victims (clockwise):
Kenneth Proctor, Mary Knight, John Roger Johnson, Frank Kohler, Vishnu
Pandit, Martin Bodrog, Arthur Daniels and Kathleen Gaarde.
Michael Slocum, a lawyer for the gun store, said SharpShooters checked
Alexis against the federal National Crime Information System database
and he was approved. Before plunking down $419 for a Remington 870
shotgun, Alexis test-fired another weapon on the rifle range, the New
York Times reported.
The Times said it was an AR-15 assault rifle and that Alexis was
prevented from buying it by a state law that bars the sale of these
weapons to out-of-state buyers. So instead, Alexis bought the kind of
shotgun that cops favor.
“The gun was broken in half and he had it in a bag,” an unnamed
official told the Times. “He went inside the building and assembled it
in a bathroom.”
Then Alexis started shooting. Why remains a mystery, but the FBI has ruled out terrorism.
Law enforcement officials initially reported that Alexis used a
shotgun, a handgun and an AR-15 in the shooting — information that was
reported by The News, The Times and dozens of other news organizations.
Parlave on Tuesday said Alexis was packing “a shotgun” when he entered
the Navy Yard’s Building 197.
“We also believe Mr. Alexis may have gained access to a handgun once
inside the facility and after he began shooting,” Parlave said. “We do
not have any information at this time that he had an AR-15 in his
possession.”
At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, a female civilian Navy worker,
shot in the shoulder, and a hero cop, wounded in both legs while trading
shots with Alexis, were on the mend — both in fair condition, officials
said. Another female civilian Navy employee, shot in the head and hand,
was discharged.
No comments:
Post a Comment