A discharged Navy Petty Officer Third Class, who served at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas, is the suspected gunman behind Monday's mass shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., NBC News has learned.
The alleged gunman, identified by his fingerprints as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, is one of the 13 people confirmed to have died in the shooting Monday morning.
Tarrant County records show Alexis was arrested in Fort Worth in Sept. 2010 for discharging a firearm inside city limits — a Class A misdemeanor. In 2004, he was charged with malicious mischief in Seattle after police said he shot at a mans tires.
The narrative from the Fort Worth arrest is below, as well as a summary of the incident report from Seattle. Meanwhile, more about his service in the United States Navy can be found here.
Summary Narrative of Fort Worth Arrest
On Saturday 09-04-10 at approximately 1849 hrs I, Officer M Medders 3835 working W237, was dispatched to an apt complex, Orion at Oak Hill Apts, at 2450 Oak Hill Rd in reference to a shots fired call. The details of the call stated "CP STS SHE HEARD A 'POP' & SAW SMOKE & DUST; NOW SEES THAT THERE IS A HOLE IN HER FLOOR & ANOTHER IN HER CEILING; BELIEVES SOMEONE JUST SHOT INTO HER APT; DID NOT SEE ANYTHING OR ANYONE; CP HAS MOVED AWAY FROM AREA WHERE HOLES ARE; CONTACT CP". Upon arrival I met with the witness who was inside her apt and visibly shaken up.
She told that she was sitting in a chair when she heard the loud pop and saw the dust. She then saw that their was a hole in her floor just a couple of feet from where she was sitting while shredding papers and a hole in the ceiling. She told me that she believed someone had shot a bullet through her apt. She then told me that no one from downstairs had come up to talk to her and she had not gone down. She also told me that her downstairs neighbor ARR (Alexis,Aaron) has called the police several times on her for being loud however the police always said they didn't hear anything and no action was taken. She said that several days ago Aaron confronted her in the parking lot about making too much noise. June told me that she is terrified of Aaron and feels that this was done intentionally. I then relocated to apt and attempted to make contact with Aaron 3 separate times by knocking on his door and I received no response.
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Due to the fact that someone could be hurt I called FD for a possible forced entry however when FD arrived Aaron came outside on his own. I made contact with Aaron who informed me that he did have a gun and he said that he was cleaning it when it went off. He said that he was trying to clean his gun while cooking and that his hands were slippery. He told me that he began to take the gun apart when his hands slipped and pulled the trigger discharging a round into the ceiling. He said he was sitting on the floor facing toward the large couch in his living room. When asked why he didn't call police or go check on the resident above him, Aaron said that he didn't think it went all the way through since he couldn't see any light through the hole. In regards to the noise he said he thought that people would just think it was a firecracker. I then asked why he wouldn't answer the door when I knocked and he said that he thought it was just his upstairs neighbor and he didn't want to talk to her because she is always making noise. While inside the apt I looked at the gun which was taken apart at this time. A gun cleaning kit was located next to the gun and the gun was covered in oil.
After investigating the situation, Aaron was taken to 350 W. Belknap and booked. A report was generated.
NBC 5 has learned that the complainant no longer lives at the complex.
2004 Arrest in Seattle Due to "Anger-Fueled" Shooting
Seattle police said Monday afternoon that Alexis was arrested in 2004 "for shooting out the tires of another man’s vehicle in what Alexis later described to detectives as an anger-fueled 'blackout.'"
In the incident report, Seattle police said Alexis exited his apartment and pulled a handgun from his waistband before firing three rounds at the rear tires of a car that belonged to a man working construction in the area. Alexis eventually confessed to the shooting, but stated that the man had mocked him after learning his own vehicle had been tampered with and that the shooting was an "anger-fueled blackout" that he didn't recall until an hour after the shooting. He was eventually booked into the King County Jail on a charge of malicious mischief.
According to the Seattle Police Department, during his interview regarding the shooting, Alexis told them he was present during the "tragic events of September 11, 2001" and "described 'how those events had disturbed him.'"
Police eventually talked with Alexis' father, who lived in New York, and said his son had anger problems related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that he was "an active participant in rescue attempts on September 11th, 2001."
Initial reports indicated that Aaron Alexis was enlisted as a reservist during his four years of service in the U.S. Navy. An NBC 5 source confirmed Monday afternoon that Alexis was on active duty from 2007 to 2011. We regret the error.
