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Navy Yard survivor returns home just a day after being shot in the head
Aaron Alexis, the man police say shot and killed 12 people in a Washington Navy Yard, reportedly called police to complain about people following him and that he was hearing voices. He sought mental health treatment from a nearby VA hospital, officials said. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
By Michael Isikoff, Jim Miklaszewski and Pete Williams, NBC News
A survivor of the deadly rampage at the Washington Navy Yard has been released from hospital -- just a day after being shot in her head and hand by Aaron Alexis.
NBC Washington reported that the woman was discharged late Tuesday. A police officer who was shot in his legs and a woman with gunshot who was wounded in the her should remained hospitalized, officials said.
The 12 men and women gunned down in the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard came from all walks of life, and had their lives stolen in one senseless moment. Â NBC's Tom Costello reports.
Alexis, a 34-year-old civilian contractor and former Navy reservist, opened fire at the Naval Sea Systems Command on Monday, killing 12 people before police shot him dead.
Earlier, it emerged that Alexis rented an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and used it for target practice at a Northern Virginia gun range and store less than two days before his shooting spree.
J. Michael Slocum, a lawyer for Sharpshooters Small Arms Range in Lorton, Va., said in an email to NBC News that on Sept. 14 Alexis also bought a Remington 870 shotgun and a "small amount of ammunition -- approximately 2 boxes -- 24 shells." Alexis listed his residence as being in Texas.
Authorities said Alexis used a Remington shotgun to shoot a police officer and a security guard before taking one of their handguns and continuing on his rampage. Some earlier reports said an assault-style rifle, such as the AR-15 was used in the shooting but the FBI said it didn’t believe he did.
Slocum said he had no information on whether Alexis sought to purchase an AR-15 the day he visited Sharpshooters. Alexis bought the shotgun legally in Virginia, according to Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier.
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A gunman opened fire Monday at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington D.C., killing at least 12 people, authorities said.
In the weeks before the attack on the Navy Yard, Alexis reported hearing voices and said that three people were sending vibrations through the ceiling to keep him from sleeping, police said Tuesday.
Police in Newport, R.I., said that Alexis called them to a Marriott hotel there on the morning of Aug. 7 and reported that he was being followed and was worried that the people were going to hurt him.
Alexis told police that the three talked to him through the walls, floor or ceiling at three hotels — two commercial hotels in Rhode Island and one on a naval base there. He told them that they used a microwave machine to send vibrations and keep him awake.
The FBI said Tuesday that it was still looking for an explanation. An FBI official would not answer a reporter’s question about whether Alexis was simply mentally ill, with no deeper motive.
Military officials said Alexis had a disciplinary record that included insubordination and disorderly conduct.
NBC's Tom Costello spoke with the heroic U.S. Park Police officers who flew their helicopter into the 'hot zone' during the active shooting scene at Navy Yard. Their chopper hovered as the scene unfolded, providing logistical support and rescuing a shooting victim.
Further in his past, Alexis was accused three years ago of accidentally firing a bullet into an upstairs apartment, and nine years ago of shooting the tires of another person’s car during an anger-fueled blackout in Seattle, where he had family. At that time, his father told detectives that Alexis helped with rescues after the Sept. 11 attacks and suffered post-traumatic stress.
Asked about new gun-control measures in the wake of what seem to be steady stream of horrific shooting sprees, President Barack Obama lamented Congress' inability to take action.
“The fact that we do not have a firm enough background-check system is something that makes us more vulnerable to these kinds of mass shootings,” Obama said in an interview with Telemundo, adding that “ultimately this is something that Congress is going to have to act on."
Obama also ordered a review of government contractor and employee security across federal agencies.
As investigators looked for answers, a friend from Texas said that Alexis was so unhappy with his life that he was ready to leave the country, and that he was beset by money problems and felt slighted as a veteran. Alexis was seen by Veterans Affairs twice, including recently in Rhode Island, law enforcement officials said.
An animation depicts how the Navy Yard shootings unfolded, showing the gunman taking up a position on the fourth floor of the building before opening fire on the crowd below.
Federal law enforcement officials sketched an early account of the spree to NBC News. They said that Alexis left a Residence Inn in Washington on Monday morning, drove a rental car to the Navy Yard and used his credentials to enter the base.
Military officials said that Alexis had a security card that allowed him access to the Navy Yard but not to the office building where he later opened fire.
Once on the base, the law enforcement officials said, Alexis apparently entered a men’s room and readied a Remington pump-action shotgun. They said he walked out, shot a police officer and a security guard and took at least one of their handguns before continuing his rampage.
Inside the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, on the fourth floor, Alexis sprayed bullets into a breakfast crowd in an atrium below, at others on a third-floor balcony and at at least one man in a fourth-floor corridor, according to authorities and eyewitness accounts.
Jonathan Dienst, Erin McClaim, Jason Cumming, Richard Esposito, Charles Hadlock, Jeff Black and Andrew Rafferty of NBC News contributed to this report.
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This story was originally published on Wed Sep 18, 2013 5:57 AM EDT
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