US names Aaron Alexis as Navy base shooting suspect
Busolami Idowu
Officials say alleged gunman among 13 dead was a former military serviceman, as police search for ‘person of interest’.
US authorities probing the shooting spree at Washington’s Navy Yard, which left 13 people dead and eight injured, have said that a lone gunman identified as Aaron Alexis, 34, of Texas carried out the killings on Monday inside a building at the US Navy complex, spraying gunfire on office workers in the cafeteria and in the hallway at the heavily secured installation.
“It’s a shooting that targeted our military and civilian personnel,” President Barack Obama said while addressing the nation after on the incident.
“They were patriots and they know the dangers of serving abroad, but today they face the unimaginable violence that they wouldn’t have expected here at home.”
Investigators who were searching for two suspects immediately the gun attack started had urged Washington residents to stay in place until the search ended.
However, Mayor Vincent Gray of Washington said on Tuesday there was no evidence nor indication that there was another shooter, “even though we haven’t completely ruled that out”.
Police chief Cathy Lanier stressed that investigators now felt comfortable that they had the sole person responsible for the loss of life inside of the base.
Alexis, the gunman was an employee of a company called “The Experts,” a subcontractor for an HP Enterprise Services military contract, Hewlett-Packard said. The contract was “to refresh equipment used on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) network.”
The FBI said Alexis used a valid pass to get on the Washington base.
President Barack Obama mourned what he called “yet another mass shooting” in the US, as the Senate was locked down, a Major League Baseball game postponed and a White House celebration delayed following Monday’s shooting.
Alexis served as a Navy reservist from 2007 to early 2011. The FBI released a photo of Alexis, who held the rank of an Aviation Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class and had served full-time in a logistics support squadron in Forth Worth, according to the Navy.
Alexis reportedly had expressed an interest in Buddhism, friends told local media in Texas, while his four-year stint in the Navy was troubled.