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| This booking photo provided by the Fort Worth Police Department shows Aaron Alexis, arrested in September, 2010, on suspicion of discharging a firearm in the city limits. The FBI has identified Alexis, 34, as the gunman in the Monday, Sept. 16, 2013 shooting rampage at at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington that left thirteen dead, including himself. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Defense officials say the suspected Washington Navy Yard gunman
was currently working as a defense department contractor, but it's not
clear if he was assigned at the military base in southeast D.C.
Defense
officials say Aaron Alexis, 34, of Texas, was working as an information
technology contractor, but it was not known which company employed him.
As a contractor, he could have had a badge that might have gained him
access to the base. Alexis was a former Navy reservist, serving from
2007 to early 2011.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University also says he was an online student pursuing a
bachelor's degree in aeronautics. He started classes in July 2012.
Thirteen people were killed during the shooting rampage at Building 197. More than a dozen others were wounded.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
A
former Navy man launched an attack Monday morning inside a building at
the Washington Navy Yard, spraying gunfire on office workers in the
cafeteria and in the hallway at the heavily secured installation,
authorities said. Thirteen people were killed, including the gunman.
Authorities said they were looking for a possible second attacker who may have been disguised in a military-style uniform.
But
as the day wore on and night fell, the rampage increasingly appeared to
be the work of a lone gunman, and Navy Yard employees were released
from the complex and children were let out their locked-down schools.
Investigators
said they had not established a motive for the rampage, which unfolded
about 8:20 a.m. in the heart of the nation's capital, less than four
miles from the White House and two miles from the Capitol.
As
for whether it may have been a terrorist attack, Mayor Vincent Gray
said: "We don't have any reason to think that at this stage." But he
said the possibility had not been ruled out.
It
was the deadliest shooting rampage at a U.S.-based military
installation since Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more
than 30 others in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas. He was convicted last
month and sentenced to death.
President Barack
Obama lamented yet another mass shooting in the U.S. that he said took
the lives of American patriots. He promised to make sure "whoever
carried out this cowardly act is held responsible."
The
FBI took charge of the investigation and identified the gunman killed
in the attack as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis of Texas. He died after a
running gunbattle with police, investigators said.
A
federal law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the
case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said Alexis was
believed to have gotten into the Navy Yard by using someone else's
identification card. But Navy officials said it was not yet clear how he
got onto the base.
Alexis was a full-time
reservist from 2007 to early 2011, leaving as a petty officer third
class, the Navy said. It did not say why he left.
He
had been working for a fleet logistics support squadron in Fort Worth,
Texas. The Navy listed his home of record as New York City.
In
addition to those killed, at least three people - a police officer and
two female civilians - were wounded. They were listed in stable
condition and were expected to survive.
The
Washington Navy Yard is a sprawling labyrinth of buildings and streets
protected by armed guards and metal detectors, and employees have to
show their IDs at doors and gates to come and go.
The
rampage took place at Building 197, the headquarters for Naval Sea
Systems Command, which buys, builds and maintains ships, submarines and
combat systems. About 3,000 people work at headquarters, many of them
civilians.
Witnesses described a gunman
opening fire from a fourth-floor overlook, aiming down on people in the
cafeteria on the main floor. Others said a gunman fired at them in a
third-floor hallway. It was not clear whether the witnesses on different
floors were describing the same gunman.
Patricia Ward, a logistics-management specialist, said she was in the cafeteria getting breakfast.
"It
was three gunshots straight in a row - pop, pop, pop. Three seconds
later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, so it was like about a total of
seven gunshots, and we just started running," Ward said.
Todd
Brundidge, an executive assistant with Navy Sea Systems Command, said
he and other co-workers encountered a gunman in a long hallway on the
third floor. The gunman was wearing all blue, he said.
"He just turned and started firing," Brundidge said.
Terrie Durham, an executive assistant with the same agency, said the gunman firing toward her and Brundidge.
"He
aimed high and missed," she said. "He said nothing. As soon as I
realized he was shooting, we just said, `Get out of the building.'"
Police
would not give any details on the gunman's weaponry, but witnesses said
the man they saw had a long gun - which can mean a rifle or a shotgun.
In
the confusion, police said around midday that they were searching for
two men who may have taken part in the attack - one carrying a handgun
and wearing a tan Navy-style uniform and a beret, the other armed with a
long gun and wearing an olive-green uniform. Washington Police Chief
Cathy Lanier said it was unclear if the men were members of the
military.
But later in the day, police said the man in the tan uniform had been identified and was not involved in the shooting.
As
emergency vehicles and law enforcement officers flooded streets around
the complex, a helicopter hovered overhead, nearby schools were locked
down and airplanes at nearby Reagan National Airport were grounded so
they would not interfere with law-enforcement choppers.
A
short distance away, security was beefed up at the Capitol and other
federal buildings, but officials said there was no known threat. Senate
officials shut down their side of the U.S. Capitol complex while
authorities searched for the potential second attacker. The House
remained open.
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief
of naval operations, was at the base at the time the shooting began but
was moved unharmed to a nearby military installation.
Anxious relatives and friends of those who work at the complex waited to hear from loved ones.
Tech
Sgt. David Reyes, who works at Andrews Air Force Base, said he was
waiting to pick up his wife, Dina, who was under lockdown in a building
next to where the shooting happened. She sent him a text message.
"They
are under lockdown because they just don't know," Reyes said. "They
have to check every building in there, and they have to check every room
and just, of course, a lot of rooms and a lot of buildings."
According
to public records, Alexis' neighbor called Fort Worth police in
September 2010 after she was nearly struck by a bullet that came from
his downstairs apartment. Alexis told police he was cleaning his gun
when it accidentally went off.
He was arrested on suspicion of discharging a firearm within city limits but was not prosecuted.
