Shooting at US Navy yard
WASHINGTON: The mother of Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis apologized to the victims today, and like his friends and colleagues she was unable to offer clues on his motive for the shooting.
‘I don’t know why he did what he did, and I’ll never be able to ask him why. Aaron is now in a place where he can never do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad,’ Cathleen Alexis said in an audio statement aired on MSNBC from her home in New York. ‘To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken.’
All 12 victims, aged 46 to 73, were civilians caught up in the shooting spree on Monday morning by the former Navy reservist who was working as an information technology contractor at the military installation.
Alexis was killed in a gun battle with police officers.
As investigators tried to find out what set off Alexis, 34, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel acknowledged there were ‘red flags’ before Alexis received security clearance to work at the complex despite having a history of misconduct and mental health problems.
‘Obviously when you go back in hindsight and look at all this, there were some red flags – of course there were,’ Hagel told a news conference. ‘And should we have picked them up? Why didn’t we? How could we have? All those questions need to be answered.’
Alexis had ‘secret’-level security clearance and entered the military installation with a valid pass.
Outside of Washington, coffee chain Starbucks Corp asked US customers to leave their guns at home after being dragged into an increasingly fractious debate over gun rights.
In a letter and a video presentation, Chief Executive Howard Schultz said the request was not a ban and not in response to the Navy Yard shooting, but nonetheless called it a ‘timely message.’ (Reuters)