Gunman: According to NBC Washington, this man Aaron Alexis, 34, from Fort Worth, Texas is the Navy Yard shooter. A background check has revealed that this is the police mugshot for Alexis who was arrested but not charged for firing a gun in his apartment in 2010.
The Washington Navy Yard gunman who killed 12 today has previously claimed to be suffering from PTSD after helping rescue efforts in New York following the 9/11 terror attacks.
Gunman Aaron Alexis was shot dead by responding officers after he opened fire inside a Navy facility around 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning.
Since he was identified as the shooter, reports have revealed that it was not the first time he was involved in a shooting.
In 2004, he was arrested in Seattle for shooting the tires of a construction worker’s car during what he later called an anger-fueled ‘blackout.’
‘He said that he didn’t remember pulling the trigger of his firearm until about one hour later,’ according to the Seattle police report.
Later he said that he felt the intended victim ‘disrespected’ him.
The report states that his father said his anger issues stemmed back to his time in New York where he helped the rescue efforts following the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The shooter’s father told police ‘that his son had experienced anger management problems that the family believed associated [sic] with PTSD.’
He was arrested in relation to that incident but never charged, an outcome repeated in Fort Worth, Texas where Alexis was living in 2010
Then, he was arrested for discharging a firearm when his neighbor reported that he fired a shot into her apartment. At the time, Alexis claimed that his hand slipped when he was cleaning his gun while cooking at the same time, and that he accidentally fired the weapon.
New reports also claim that Alexis was arrested for a second time in DeKalb county, Georgia and spent two nights in jail over a disorderly conduct charge but no further details have been released about that incident.
No motive has been revealed for Monday’s shooting, but speculation is growing his dismissal from the U.S. Navy for ‘misconduct’ in January 2011 may have inspired him to commit deadly revenge.
The Pentagon confirmed that he was awarded the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal prior to his discharge in January 2011.
Frantic Search: Emergency responders arrive at the scene of a shooting at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, where several people were killed and others injured when at least one gunman opened fire at the U.S. Navy Yard
Escape: Employees at the naval yard run from the building with their hands in the air following the shooting
The shooter: Aaron Alexis is believed to have brought a shotgun with him on Monday and picked up the other two weapons over the course of his shooting spree at the government facility
Family members of the Washington shooter are ‘distraught’ to learn that he carried out the massacre, relatives told MailOnline today.
Despite the lack of an acknowledged motive, one U.S. official has been quoted as saying Alexis was discharged from the Navy in 2011 following a series of incidents of ‘misconduct.’
Law enforcement said that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and that he served in the U.S. Navy between May 5, 2007 and January 31, 2011.
A U.S. Navy spokesman said Alexis was an ‘aviation electrician’s mate’ – ranked as a third class petty officer – and served at the Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, Texas.He is reported to have enlisted in New York. The Brooklyn native graduated from boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois as an airman recruit.
His target: The shooting took place inside Building 179 at the D. C. Navy Yards
His response: President Obama called the Monday shooting a ‘cowardly act’
Throughout the late 1990s until 2002, he was listed as living in Manhattan and Queens in New York City. He is still registered as a voter in New York City.
Alexis, who worked as a civilian I.T. contractor at the military base in the nation’s capital, entered the cafeteria of Building 197 just before 8:15 a.m. brandishing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a handgun, and began shooting.
It is thought that he used an identification card belonging to another employee of the base to gain entry to the heavily secured building where he carried out his deadly attack.
The FBI said that after SWAT teams swarmed the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, an officer shot Alexis dead.
Witnesses said that during his rampage he appeared to fire at selected targets and not randomly.
The FBI’s Washington Field Office also said that it had ‘all [it] assets out’ in the field as they searched for one other possible shooter described as a black man in his 40s or his 50s.
According to a deleted Linked In profile, Alexis attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and worked for a tech firm.
A former roommate from Ft. Worth, the owner of Happy Bowl Thai restaurant, told NBC News he had not seen the man in three months.
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