Aaron Alexis
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| “ | Ultra low frequency attack is what I've been subject to for the last 3 months. And to be perfectly honest, that is what has driven me to this. | „ |
| ~ Alexis' paranoia, which lead to him committing the shooting. |
Aaron Alexis (May 9th, 1979 – September 16th, 2013) was an American mass murderer responsible for the Washington Navy Yard mass shooting on September 16, 2013. He killed 12 people before being killed by responding police officers. It was the second-deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military base after the Fort Hood shooting perpetrated by Nidal Malik Hassan in November 2009.
Prior to shooting edit
Aaron Alexis, the perpetrator, arrived in the Washington, D.C., area on or around August 25, 2013, and stayed at various hotels. At the time of the massacre, he had been staying at a Residence Inn hotel in southwest Washington since September 7. He was working for a subcontractor on a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services contract and staying with five other civilian contractors.
On Saturday, September 14, two days before the massacre, Alexis visited the Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, Virginia, 15 miles (24 km) south of Washington. He tested out an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle but did not seek to buy it, a lawyer for the store said.
Initial reports indicated that one may have been used in the Washington Navy Yard shootings. Instead, after purchasing ammunition and test-firing the AR-15, Alexis inquired about buying a handgun at the range, according to an attorney for the store However, since federal law does not allow dealers to sell directly to out-of-state residents, and the gun would have been shipped to a licensed dealer in his home state, Alexis then selected a Remington 870 Express 12-gauge shotgun, since rifles and shotgun may be directly sold to out-of-state residents, and bought it along with two boxes of shells containing about 24 rounds, after passing a state and federal background check.
Shooting edit
Sometime before 8:20 a.m. on September 16, Alexis arrived at the Navy Yard in a rental car, using a valid pass to enter the Yard. He entered Building 197 carrying the disassembled shotgun (the barrel and stock of which had been sawed off) in a bag on his shoulder. He assembled the shotgun inside a bathroom on the fourth floor, then emerged with the gun and began shooting. Many of the people shot on the fourth floor were shot at close range in the head.
He then continued firing on the third floor and the lobby. At some point, Alexis shot and killed a security officer and took the officer's Beretta 9mm semiautomatic pistol, using it after running out of ammunition for his shotgun. Initial reports that Alexis claimed most of his victims by firing from a fourth-floor walkway onto people entering a first-floor cafeteria were later stated to be incorrect.
At 8:23 a.m., the first calls to 9-1-1 were made. Six minutes later, a four-person active-shooter response team was deployed into the building. Around that time, Alexis was still firing shots on both the third and fourth floors.
A NAVSEA employee described encountering a gunman wearing all-blue clothing in a third-floor hallway, saying, "He just turned and started firing." At one point during the shooting, one man was hit by a "stray bullet" in an alleyway.
As D.C. police responded within seven minutes of the first shootings, Alexis opened fire on them, hitting an officer, Scott Williams, in the leg. He engaged several law enforcement personnel in a gunfight that lasted for more than 30 minutes. At around 9:20 a.m., Alexis was fatally shot in the head by police on the third floor; his death was later confirmed at 11:50 a.m.
Victims edit
There were 13 fatalities. The suspect and 11 of the victims were killed at the scene, while a 12th victim who was shot in the head, 61-year-old Vishnu Pandit, died at George Washington University Hospital. All the victims killed were civilian employees or contractors. Eight others were injured, three of them from gunfire. The survivors wounded by gunshots (police officer Scott Williams and two female civilians) were in critical condition at Washington Hospital Center.
Fatalities edit
- Michael Arnold, 59
- Martin Bodrog, 53
- Arthur Daniels, 51
- Sylvia Frasier, 53
- Kathy Gaarde, 62
- John Roger Johnson, 73
- Mary Francis Knight, 51
- Frank Kohler, 50
- Vishnu Pandit, 61
- Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46
- Gerald Read, 58
- Richard Michael Ridgell, 52