The FBI today released more information related to the Navy Yard shooting, including chilling video footage of the now deceased shooter, Aaron Alexis, carrying a shotgun as he moved through the hallways and a stairwell of Building #197 at the Washington Navy Yard.
In a release from its Washington field office, the FBI confirmed that Alexis was employed as a contractor for a private information technology firm and was assigned to a project at the Washington Navy Yard. He began working there on September 9th.
Alexis arrived in the DC area on August 25th and stayed at various hotels in the surrounding area between then and the day of the shooting on September 16th. The release indicates that “Alexis had legitimate access to the Navy Yard as a result of his work as a contractor and he utilized a valid pass to gain entry to Building #197.”
The statement of findings also provides a detailed timeline of Alexis’ activities during the morning of September 16.
Among the details released in today’s findings is an alleged delusion that Alexis believed he was being controlled by extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves and the relation of that detail to an etching found on the shotgun Alexis used during the course of the shooting. From the FBI release:
Analysis of the electronic media recovered from Alexis’ belongings revealed several relevant communications. While analysis of these communications is ongoing in conjunction with other information and evidence determined through investigation, preliminary analysis has yielded clues to his intentions and issues of importance to him. There are indicators that Alexis was prepared to die during the attack and that he accepted death as the inevitable consequence of his actions. There is no indication to date that Alexis was targeting specific individuals.
There are multiple indicators that Alexis held a delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves. The etching of “My ELF weapon!” on the left side of the receiver of the Remington 870 shotgun is believed to reference these electromagnetic waves. In addition, a document retrieved from his electronic media stated, “Ultra low frequency attack is what I’ve been subject to for the last 3 months, and to be perfectly honest that is what has driven me to this.”
ELF technology was a legitimate program for naval sub-tonal submarine communications; however, conspiracy theories exist which misinterpret its application as the weaponization of remote neural frequencies for government monitoring and manipulation of unsuspecting citizens.
Additional etchings found on the weapon read, “End to the torment,” “Not what yall say” and “Better off this way.” Authorities say Alexis also obtained a Beretta handgun during the course of the shootings.
The FBI said its investigation to date indicates that Alexis acted alone in the shootings, which killed twelve and wounded several others. Photos taken at the scene and from surveillance footage can be viewed at the FBI’s web page for the Navy Yard Shootings.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
It’s a good thing no one else there had a weapon, someone might have gotten hurt in the crossfire!
Sometimes people need to be committed. No one ever wants to advance a mental health/psychiatric agenda, only anti-gun hysteria.
Maybe if the government would take care of it’s veterans instead of giving money away to cronies this incident may have been prvented.
If the political class can’t have an honest debate on mental health issues. If they did, too many politicians might end up institutionalized.
Chilling. That’s another of those words that needs a quick death, like iconic, icon, and went down.
As a psychiatrist, I have the following comments. If Alexis had had an acute psychosis, he would likely have been hospitalized at one of the VA facilities where he sought treatment for “insomnia.” If he was psychotic at the time he sought treatment at the VA facilities, he was evidently able to conceal his mental state from the psychiatric doctors. Hence, he was not “floridly” psychotic.
Had he had a previous psychotic episode, he would have most probably been hospitalized at that time.
My conclusion is that Alexis had a “limited” psychosis which enabled him to behave as though he was relatively “normal.” No one should be blamed for missing the diagnosis, assuming the facts I have postulated.
On the other hand, I believe Alexis should not have been granted a “Secret” security clearance. He had records sufficient to establish his immpulsivity, even if those behaviors occurred before he became schizophrenic, if, indeed, he warranted that diagnosis. So the government and its contractors screwed up in this case.
The whole thing went down in an hour! But the media milked it all day. And, at first spent hours reporting on 3 (maybe, white) shooters. And, then “see what guns do?”
Of course, if personnel at the Navy Yard were armed … he’d have gotten off, perhaps, one shot.
There was a man in the office right next to the one the killer chose. He, and two people who ran inside his office, put up all sorts of furniture at the door. So the killer couldn’t come inside. He shot through the walls. Inside, people were on the floor.
And, superiors were called on their cell phones, from this hiding place, RIGHT AWAY!
He must have run out of people on the 3rd floor. So he ran down the staircase to the second floor. But you couldn’t gain access to any office, there, without an electronic key.
Interesting, that you see a full backpack hanging inside a bathroom’s stall door. He could have forgotten where this bathroom was? And, he killed people. So there was no one he could ask “where’s the lavatory.”
They said he was a contractor hired to do IT. (Doesn’t look like the type to me that would know an algorythm one line, from the other.) But he could’a been a HIT man. Experienced in killing. Used to going in and out. Without ever being seen.
He was finally TRAPPED and KILLED. Not that the media says anything about what it took snipers bravery to solve.
No one, but the perp, who was shot, had a gun.
There was a similar scene in Nairobi. 13 terrorist killers who had 2 years to visit. Plot. Hide grenades. And, malls just aren’t prepared.
These events in Nairobi and DC make the situation abundantly clear. Faced with a threat your only choices are run like hell, or if unable then respond with immediate and lethal violence.
Hesitation will kill you.
Now the narrative is “sawed off” shotgun. I guess that sounds scarier than shotgun. so far they are not mentioning the size of the shotgun. If they do they are sure to think a 20 gauge is bigger than a 12 gauge.
I remember a local news cutie here talking about someone with a 38 millimeter pistol. Wow… scary gun. However, I am sure she knows more about mascara than I do so…..
And of course, it is not sawn off. Pistol grip with 18″ barrel, but legal just about everywhere. Probably a Mossberg 500. Same weapon I use fer gettin’ taters up.
The FBI identifies the shotgun as a Remington 870 but I did not see anywhere that they indicated the gauge or specific model. My guess is 12 gauge. I presume he sawed off the stock and barrel in order to fit it into the back pack though it seems like it still would have been a tight fit. According to the report he bought a hacksaw the same day he bought the gun.
If he knew anything about the 870 he’d know that removing the barrel from the action is quite easy.
There is a threaded end cap on the magazine tube. All you do is remove that end cap, remove the fore grip and then the barrel comes right off. Re-assembly takes less than a minute. It is all in the instruction manual.
It is one of the features that makes the shotgun so popular among sportsmen. You can easily change from a rifled barrel (say for using slugs on deer) to a long full choke barrel (for geese) to an 18″ cylinder choke barrel (for home defense.)
My guess is that he fell for the myth that a sawed of barrel is somehow more lethal than a standard barrel.
The narrative is also that, as this psychiatrist-blogger gasps, “He had apparently recently rented an assault weapon“!!!!!
She doesn’t clarify, but I assume that means he paid to shoot an AR-15 at a range somewhere at some point.
But given that the title of her article refers to “unregulated gun access”, I can’t help but wonder whether she thinks ordinary joes can just wander in off the street and rent an “assault weapon” from Walmart for a couple of days, no questions, whenever they feel like going on a murderous rampage.
For a crazy man he was doing everything right – moving quickly and efficiently, employing cover/concealment, etc. The speed of his movements is most alarming.
He looks shockingly practiced.
Not sure if that was something the Navy taught him (I strongly doubt it) or if he picked it up from somewhere else.
Scary, and kudos to the person(s) who managed to bring him down.
He was a huge player of video games. Hoe much difference is there between some games and training simulators?
Ask any pilot who has tried Microsoft Flight Simulator and they’ll tell you you can learn quite a bit sitting at a console, but there is also no substitute for doing it live.
And MS Flight is purposefully built to be as realistic as possible, Call of Duty not so much.
I used to compete extensively in tactical firearms competitions – real live events with live ammo, movement, and interactive targets. It is amazing how much stress the timer alone adds to the process, but still that is nothing like real life.
Given his exhibited behaviors I’d say he’d done more than just punch a keypad; at least having done some live action walk throughs or simulations.
Either that or his minds was so far into fantasy/delusions as to render the weight of reality meaningless.
And, as expected, a doctor on a medical blog (a psychiatrist of all things, like the kind this guy tried — but failed — to get help from before he went postal) is using this tragedy as yet more evidence as to why doctors must lobby for an end to “unregulated gun access” (her words).
“The twelve victims and the gunman himself were each a world lost, lost in a sea of inadequate gun regulations, NRA obstructionism, and a society that puts the right to have a weapon before almost any other right of citizenship.”
Also, she found a way to fit a plug for Obamacare in there. Even though, as one of the commenters pointed out, this guy had the very kind of government health care most of the Obamacare cheerleaders are pushing for. SMH.
It’s worth a read, both for the hoplophobic delusion of the psychiatrist-author, and for the fair number of sanity-bringing comments.
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/09/unregulated-gun-access-drain-medical-resources.html
Is that a Prius. Certifiable for sure.