Alleged Navy Yard gunman had checkered military career, officials say - Washington Post

Top Stories - Google News

Alleged Navy Yard gunman had checkered military career, officials say - Washington Post

The man named as the shooter in Monday’s Washington Navy Yard rampage had a highly checkered four-year career as a Navy reservist, a period marked by repeated run-ins with the law and his military superiors, Navy officials said Tuesday.

Aaron Alexis was cited at least eight times for misconduct for offenses as minor as a traffic ticket and showing up late for work but also as serious as insubordination and disorderly conduct, according to a Navy official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the gunman’s personnel record.

Alexis, who died Monday in a gun battle with police after allegedly killing at least 12 people at the Navy Yard, did not face court martial for any of the offenses, which included an insubordination charge in 2008, a disorderly conduct charge in 2009 and extended unauthorized absences from work on multiple occasions between 2008 and 2010. He did receive administrative punishments three times. The official could not detail the punishments, but discipline for such offenses could range from a loss in pay to reduction in rank.

The Navy also gave Alexis an administrative sanction after he was arrested by civilian authorities in DeKalb County, Ga., in 2008 and held for two nights in jail, the Navy official said.

Also Tuesday, the Navy corrected its previous account of the circumstances under which Alexis left the service. He received an honorable discharge, effective Jan. 31, 2011, the Navy official said. On Monday, the Navy mistakenly said he had received a general discharge, a less-desirable category that would have indicated to future employers that there was something amiss with his performance.

The new information added to the emerging portrait of a man with layers of contradictions, who lived for a time in a bungalow in the woods near a Buddhist temple in Fort Worth, where he occasionally joined Thai immigrants in meditation, but was also arrested after firing a bullet through his upstairs neighbor’s floor and was then asked to leave his Fort Worth apartment.

One Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said Monday that Alexis was discharged in January 2011 for “a pattern of misconduct” and that the 2010 gun incident in Texas played a role in his departure.

But the Navy clarified Tuesday that while the service had originally sought to kick out Alexis with a general discharge, those proceedings were moving slowly, and it was unclear whether the Navy had sufficient cause to push forward. So when Alexis applied on his own to leave the Navy in early 2011 with an honorable discharge, the service granted his request, the official said.

With his honorable discharge, Alexis apparently was issued a government contractor access card that would have allowed him into the Navy Yard and other military installations, said Thomas Hoshko, chief executive of The Experts, a Hewlett-Packard subcontractor for which Alexis was working. His security clearance was updated in July.

“There had to be a thorough investigation,” Hoshko said. “There is nothing that came up in all the searches.”

more info...