Shooter Kills 12 at D.C. Navy Yard
- Details
- Category: Crime
- Published on Tuesday, 17 September 2013 05:54
- Written by Janet Walker
The Washington DC dawn was disrupted when a former employee, dressed in military fatigues, accessed the U.S. Navy Yard and opened fire killing 12 and injuring eight before he was gunned down by police.
According to D.C. Metro Police, the first 911 call came in at 8:15am, reporting shots fired and indicating there was a gunman, possibly two or more, inside the Navy Yard facility shooting randomly.
Washington Police Department Chief of Police Cathy Lainer, in early reports, indicated there may have been up to three shooters. By the end of the day the lone shooter was identified as Aaron Alexia.
Alexia, a former Navel contract employee from Fort Worth, Texas, who had recently lost his job, entered the Navel Yard with legitimate access, passing through security clearance with the semi automatic weapons in his vehicle.
After the first 9-11 call came in multiple active shooter teams were deployed to the 41 acre complex in the capitals South East quadrant and arrived within seven minutes, including Washington Metro Police, FBI, Navy Yard Police, Secret Service and other agencies tactical teams.
As it is a government facility President Obama was actively engaged in the situation and continually briefed throughout the day by Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco and Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco.
Multiple online sources indicate the disgruntled Alexis positioned himself above the cafeteria and outdoor walkway after passing through security checkpoints and parking his car in the designated spot.
He carried his initial weapon and began shooting. From all reports he used three weapons, a low level semi-automatic AR-15, a shotgun and a 9mm handgun he picked up from a wounded police officer.
At this time no agency or media outlets report that the weapon was a concealed prior to the initiation of gunfire.
Police reported building 197 the home to the Naval Seat command, a ringed structure surrounding an outdoor atrium, which houses the cafeteria as well as many other offices, of the complex was ground zero. The majority of victims were killed in the cafeteria or attempting to flee.
Retired Navy commander Kirk Lippold, who led the USS Cole, spoke with two former shipmates who were on the third floor of Building 197 at the time of the shooting according to reports from USA Today.
He said “the building is a wide-open space ringed with offices around a central atrium. The building supports are industrial steel beams and his shipmates told him the bullets that hit the beams echoed so loudly it was difficult to determine where they were being fired from.”
The Navy Yard, located in the Southeast quadrant of Washington D.C. is the home to the Chief of Navel Operations. Naval Sea systems command, Navel Historical Center, the Department of Navel History, the U.S. Judge Advocate General’s Corps, Navel Reactors, Marine Corps Institute and the United State Navy Band and other more classified government agencies and departments are Headquartered on the 41 acre compound.
President Obama also telephoned the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to express his condolences. spoke with FBI Director James Comey and spoke with the Multiple agencies and jurisdiction were deployed to the facility.
The victims include both military and civilian employees. Police have not yet released the names of all 12 victims. Seven have been identified. They were 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 Mass shooting at the Navy Yard is the 20th Mass Shooting since 2009.
