Dead suspect in Navy Yard massacre had ties to Seattle



SEATTLE -- Aaron Alexis, the 34-year-old man suspected of killing a dozen people and injured others in a shooting at the Washington Navy Yard Monday morning, had ties to the Pacific Northwest.

Seattle police arrested Alexis in May 2004 for shooting out the tires of another man’s car.

According to the police report, construction workers parked the car in the driveway of their work site, which was next to a home where Alexis was staying in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The victims reported seeing Alexis walk out of the home, pull a gun from his waistband and fire three shots into the two rear tires of their Honda Civic before he slowly walked back to his home, police said.

When detectives interviewed workers and a manager at the construction site, they told police Alexis had “stared” at construction workers at the job site every day a month prior to the shooting and always displayed his gun when walking to his car.

The owner of the construction business told police he believed Alexis was angry over the parking situation around the work site.

Detective notes from the incident indicate they made several attempts to contact Alexis by phone and at his work, but eventually found and arrested him outside of his home on June 3, 2004. Police then obtained permission to search the home, found a gun and ammunition in Alexis’ room, and booked him into the King County Jail for malicious mischief.

Following his arrest, Alexis told detectives he perceived he had been “mocked” by construction workers the morning of the incident and said they had “disrespected him.” Alexis also claimed he had an anger-fueled “blackout,” and could not remember firing his gun at the victims’ vehicle until an hour after the incident.

Alexis also told police he was present during “the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001,” and described “how those events had disturbed him.”

Detectives later spoke with Alexis’ father, who lived in New York, and he told police Alexis had anger-management problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and that Alexis had been an active participant in rescue attempts on Sept. 11, 2001.

The case was referred to the Seattle Municipal Court, but the charge was later dropped and the case was deleted from court records a year later.

Records show Alexis was involved in a two-car collision on northbound Interstate 405 in March 2005. Records show he had no insurance at the time. He was fined $600.