A police officer runs near the scene of
the shooting rampage at the Washington
Navy Yard on Monday, September 16.
Authorities said at least 12 people -- and
the suspect -- were killed in the
shooting.
- A former Navy reservist with a
"pattern of misconduct" unleashed a barrage of bullets
at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, killing 12
people and injuring eight others.
Employed as a military contractor, 34-year-old Aaron
Alexis began at the Navy Yard last week, but worked at
multiple Navy offices over the summer, according to
employer Homas Hoshko, CEO of The Experts, an HP
subcontractor. Hoshko said there were no reports of
problems with Alexis at the other Navy offices.
Authorities said Alexis was killed after an encounter with
security.
Who is accused Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis?
In addition to the dead suspect, who authorities
identified earlier, police late Monday released the
names and ages of seven of the 12 people killed in the
shooting. None of the seven was military personnel.
They are Michael Arnold, 59; Sylvia Frasier, 53; Kathy
Gaarde, 62; John Roger Johnson, 73; Frank Kohler, 50;
Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46; and Vishnu Pandit, 61.
The names of the other five will be released once their
families have been notified.
Eight people were injured in the shooting rampage,
Washington Mayor Vincent Gray told reporters Monday
night. Three of those were injured by gunfire, and the
others had other types of injuries, such as contusions
and chest pain. Earlier Monday evening, Navy Vice Adm.
William D. French said 14 people were injured.
Washington police are confident that only one person
was involved in Monday morning's shooting at the
Washington Navy Yard, and they are lifting a shelter-in-
place order for residents who live nearby, Police Chief
Cathy Lanier said Monday night.
Tell us about the shooter
Authorities are still searching for more
information about Alexis, and they're
asking the public for help.
"No piece of information is too small,"
said Valerie Parlave, assistant director in
charge of the Washington FBI Field Office.
"We are looking to learn everything we
can about his recent movements, his
contacts and associates."
Even as the FBI ruled out any other
shooters in the rampage at the
headquarters for Naval Sea Systems
Command, Metropolitan Police were
trying to track down at least one person to
determine whether that individual had any
involvement.
"We'll continue to seek information about
what the motive is. We don't have any
reason at this stage to suspect terrorism,"
Gray told reporters, "but certainly it has
not been ruled out."
The other possible suspect was described
by police as a black male, between 40 and
50, wearing an "olive drab-colored"
military-style uniform.
"We still don't know all the facts. But we
do know that several people have been
shot and some have been killed," President Barack
Obama said Monday afternoon. "So we are confronting
yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a
military installation in our nation's capital."
Obama called the shooting a "cowardly act" that
targeted military and civilians serving their country.
"They know the dangers of serving abroad," he said,
"but today they faced the unimaginable violence that
we wouldn't have expected here at home."
Witness: 'He aimed his gun at us' and fired
Witness: People pushed their way out of building
The violence started unfolding at 8:20 a.m. when
several shots were fired inside the southeast
Washington facility.
D.C. Metropolitan Police officials told CNN
that Alexis drove onto the installation and
parked before walking a short distance to
Building 197. Once inside, according to
the official, Alexis made his way to an
overlook above the atrium and opened
fire.
Alexis was armed with an AR-15
semiautomatic rifle, a 9mm handgun and
another rifle, the official said. He was
believed to have used the AR-15 during
most of the attack, the official said.
Two witnesses told CNN affiliate WJLA-TV
that they heard a fire alarm go off in the
building where they worked, then saw a
man with a rifle down the hallway as they
exited the building.
"He aimed the gun and fired our way,"
Todd Brundidge told WJLA.
People frantically ran down stairs to get
out of the building, Brundidge said.
"They were pushing. They were shoving.
People were falling down," he told WJLA.
"As we came outside, people were
climbing the wall trying to get over the
wall to get out. .... It was just crazy."
The injured included a Washington police
officer who has been hospitalized and a
base security guard officer, said Metropolitan Police
Department spokeswoman Saray Leon.
Victims in surgery
Three people, including the D.C. police officer, were
admitted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center with
multiple gunshot wounds. They are expected to survive,
chief medical officer Janis Orlowski told reporters.
One person was pronounced dead at George
Washington University Hospital, according to Dr. Babak
Sarani, chief of trauma and acute care there.
Details emerge about suspect
As authorities investigated the deadly
shooting, across the country details began
to emerge about the suspect .
The FBI said it identified Alexis using
fingerprints and ID.
He was in the Navy's ready reserve, Navy
Secretary Ray Mabus told CNN. In the
past, he was an enlisted petty officer
working on electrical systems. He was discharged from
the Navy following a "pattern of misconduct," a U.S.
defense official said. The military is reviewing his files.
The suspected shooter had an active ID and entered the
base legally, according to a federal law enforcement
official.
Outside Fort Worth, Texas, friend Michael Ritrovato said
Alexis had recently been frustrated with the civilian
contractor about a payment issue. But Ritrovato said
his friend never showed signs of aggressiveness or
violence, though he played a lot of shooting video
games online.
"It's incredible that this is all happening, because he
was a very good-natured guy," Ritrovato said. "It
seemed like he wanted to get more out of life."
In Seattle, police said they arrested Alexis in 2004 for
shooting out the tires of another man's vehicle in what
Alexis later told detectives was an anger-fueled
"blackout."
Government buildings, schools tighten security
Security was stepped up at the Pentagon in the
aftermath of the shooting.
And at least eight schools went on lockdown as a
precaution, the Washington public schools said.
Air traffic to Reagan National Airport in northern
Virginia, the closest airport to downtown Washington,
was suspended after the shooting but later resumed,
the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Officials postponed a Washington Nationals baseball
game that had been scheduled for Monday night at
Nationals Park, just a few blocks away from the
Washington Navy Yard.
The military installation will be closed to all but
emergency personnel and traffic on Tuesday, according
to the Facebook page of the Naval District of
Washington.
The Navy Yard is the headquarters for Naval Sea
Systems Command -- the workplace for about 3,000
people -- and is the largest of the Navy's five system
commands. It has a fiscal year budget of nearly $30
billion.
"With a force of 60,000 civilian, military and contract
support personnel, NAVSEA engineers, builds, buys and
maintains the Navy's ships and submarines and their
combat systems," the Navy said.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's congressional
delegate, described the Navy yard as a "very secure
facility."
The Washington Navy Yard, the Navy's oldest land
establishment, was created in 1799 following an act of
Congress, according to the Naval History and Heritage
Command. Originally envisioned as a shipbuilding and
fitting facility on the Anacostia River, it serviced some of
the Navy's most famous early vessels, including the USS
Constitution.
Burned during the War of 1812, the Navy Yard was
transformed into a center for ordnance and
technological development. The facility was the world's
largest ordnance plant during World War II, but its
military role steadily diminished during the Cold War
era.
Today, the Navy Yard includes the headquarters of
Naval District Washington and is home to a naval
museum. The area around the facility has been marked
in recent years by significant commercial and
residential revitalization.
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