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Officials: Navy Yard shooter carved odd messages
into his gun before carnage
View Photo Gallery Aaron Alexis is identified as Navy Yard shooter:Authorities say the former
Navy reservist, who had been living in Fort Worth, was the dead gunman at the Washington Navy
Yard.
By Sari Horwitz, Steve Vogel and Michael Laris, E-mail the writers
Aaron Alexis carved bizarre phrases on the stock of his shotgun before he killed 12 people at
the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, and investigators are hoping the words provide clues
to what prompted the shooting, two law enforcement officials said.
The phrases were Better off this way and My ELF weapon, according to the officials, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
The officials cautioned they do not yet know
what, if anything, Alexis meant in the
etchings.
ELF generally stands for extremely low
frequency and can refer to weather or
communications efforts, among other things.
Alexis, who was battling mental health
issues, told police in Rhode Island in August
that he was hearing voices of three people
who had been sent to follow him and keep
him awake and were using some sort of
microwave machine to send vibrations into
his body, preventing him from falling asleep,
according to police reports.
Graphic
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shooting.
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The law enforcement officials said they do
not know whether he was referring to those
vibrations in his carvings. The Navy has
used extremely low frequencies in several
capacities, including a joint effort with the Air
Force on the High Frequency Active Auroral
Research Program (HAARP). HAARP is
often cited by conspiracy theorists.
The new details came as federal officials
continued to wrestle with shortcomings in the
military background check system that
allowed Alexis access to military installations
despite his self-described mental problems
and a series of interactions with law
enforcement.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said
Wednesday that obviously there were a lot
of red flags and legitimate questions
about why they didnt get picked up.
Where there are gaps, we will close them,
Hagel said. Where there are failures, we will
correct them.
Police in Rhode Island said they had no
reason to arrest Alexis, or to put him under
observation, after he told them about the
voices. They said such run-ins are a
common occurrence.
But Lt. William Fitzgerald, of the Newport,
R.I., police, said his department faxed its
report to the local naval police station, where
an official pledged to follow up. A spokesman
at Naval Station Newport declined to say
whether military police did so.
This will be part of the mix here, Hagel said,
adding that officials will be seeking answers
to questions about how we could have
brought those kinds of reports into the
clearance process.
Hagel said the Pentagon is launching reviews
on the granting and renewing of security
clearances and on access procedures at
military facilities. An independent panel will also tackle those issues. The Navy is doing its
own examination.
Obviously, something went wrong, Hagel said. We will review everything.
Alexiss encounters with federal health-care workers were also receiving scrutiny.
Law enforcement officials said Alexis went to two Veterans Affairs facilities, complaining of
insomnia. Both visits were after the August incident in Rhode Island.
Alexis sought treatment at a VA medical facility in Providence, R.I., on Aug. 23 and in
Washington on Aug. 28, according to a VA memorandum delivered Wednesday afternoon to
congressional committees.
Alexis told medical workers at the facilities that he was not depressed and that he was not
considering harming himself or others, according to the memorandum.
On both occasions, Mr. Alexis was alert and oriented, and was asked by VA doctors if he
was struggling with anxiety or depression, or had thoughts about harming himself or others,
which he denied, said the memo, a copy of which has been obtained by The Washington
Read the stories of those killed in the Navy Yard
shooting.
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A picture emerges as eyewitnesses
tell what they saw and heard amid
the chaos.
Graphic: What is the Navy Yard?
Aaron Alexis timeline of events
Alexis had a checkered four-year
career as a Navy reservist and
repeated run-ins with military
supervisors and the law.
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The memo, the VAs first account of its interactions with Alexis, was sent in response to
requests for information by the House and Senate veterans affairs committees.
Alexis never sought an appointment with VA mental health specialists, according to the
memo, which cited departmental records. He either canceled or did not show up for primary
care appointments, the memo added.
During his visit Aug. 23 to the VA Medical Center in Providence, Alexis was given a small
amount of a sleep medication and instructed to follow up with a primary care provider, the
memo said.
Alexis showed up at the emergency room at the VA Medical Center in Washington five days
later to request a refill, complaining of insomnia that he attributed to his work schedule,
according to the memo.
Two law enforcement officials said the facility in Providence gave Alexis the antidepressant
Trazodone, which is also used to treat anxiety and insomnia. The VA facility in the District
gave him a refill, the officials said.
Alexis was enrolled in the VA health-care system in February 2011. He filed a disability
compensation claim with the VA and in December 2011 was granted a 20 percent disability
rating for orthopedic issues, according to the VA. A year later, the rating was increased to 30
percent, and an additional 10 percent was granted for tinnitus, a condition that involves ringing
in the ear. Alexis was receiving $395 a month based on the disability rating, according to the
VA.
The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee told the Department of Veterans
Affairs on Wednesday that it must preserve all records involving its interactions with Alexis.
A letter sent by Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki says
that all documents, including work or personal e-mails, calendars and schedules of
employees, touching in any way to Aaron Alexis should be turned over to the committee as
soon as possible.
To be clear, no such records shall be
destroyed, modified, altered, deleted,
removed, relocated or otherwise negligently
or intentionally handled so as to make them
inaccessible to the Committee, the letter
states.
A top Navy official also addressed questions
about the militarys beleaguered background
check system. Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert,
who serves as chief of naval operations and
was evacuated from his Navy Yard
residence shortly after shots were fired in
Mondays deadly rampage, told a
congressional hearing on sequestration Wednesday that any vulnerabilities that may exist in
security procedures are unrelated to cost-control measures cited in a recent Defense
Department Inspector Generals report.
We dont cut budgetary corners for security, Greenert told lawmakers.
We lost shipmates on Monday, Greenert said, adding that he expects a rapid review of
security procedures and access controls to be completed within two weeks.
Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to weigh in on
broader questions of gun violence, saying domestic policy is not their job. Gun violence is an
issue. It is tragic, Hagel said.
President Obama, whose initiatives on preventing gun violence following the Newtown, Conn.,
elementary school massacre stalled in Congress, plans to join a memorial service Sunday to
honor Mondays Navy Yard victims, the White House said. While some states, including
Maryland and New York, have tightened gun laws, similar efforts have flagged in many state
legislatures.
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The president wants to mourn the loss of these innocent victims and share in the nations
pain in the aftermath of another senseless mass shooting, press secretary Jay Carney told
reporters Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in New York, Alexiss mother expressed sorrow Wednesday for her sons
carnage.
Our son Aaron Alexis has murdered twelve people and wounded several others. His actions
have had a profound and everlasting effect on the family of these victims, Cathleen Alexis
said in a statement read by a Brooklyn pastor.
I dont know why he did what he did and Ill
never be able to ask him why. Aaron is in a
place where he can no longer do harm to
anyone. For that I am glad. To the families of
the victims, I am so very sorry that this
happened. My heart is broken.
A New York neighbor of Alexiss relatives
indicated that the family had been estranged
from Alexis in recent years.
Ryan Stoner, a 33-year-old tattoo artist, lives
in the apartment below Alexiss mother, her
two daughters, son-in-law and grandson.
The family moved in about a year ago, he said. They mostly kept to themselves, but after a
recent visit by the FBI, the two sisters came downstairs to talk.
They said they had not talked to their brother in years and that he had never visited the
Bedford-Stuyvesant home they had lived in for the past year. When Aarons sister, Naomi
Alexis, got married, he was not at her wedding. Her husband, Anthony Little, had never met
him, Stoner said.
They said the FBI had asked them the same questions over and over, questions they couldnt
answer. He was just estranged from the family, Little told Stoner. The superintendent of the
building had told Stoner that when Cathleen Alexis first moved in, she mentioned having
daughters but not a son.
Late Monday night, Stoner heard music coming from Cathleen Alexiss bedroom, a bluesy
record of a woman singing, along with sobbing. The next morning, his girlfriend asked Alexis if
she was all right. I dont know, she said.
Alexis, a nurse, learned of the shooting at work, Stoner said Little had told him. Co-workers
recognized the name on the television screen and pointed it out to her, and she then saw her
sons face.
Stoner described Cathleen Alexis as a stone wall who did not speak much to her neighbors.
They had clashed a bit over noise; she once complained to their landlord about marijuana
smoke coming from his apartment. She looked like she was always worn down. She was
always tired.
Rachel Weiner and Philip Rucker contributed to this report.
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