Signs of Mental Illness Seen in Navy Gunman for Decade[interaction with RI police and arrest in GA] [View all]

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON — The former Navy reservist who killed 12 people in a shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday had exhibited signs of mental illness dating back more than a decade, including a recent episode in which he complained about hearing voices and of people sending “vibrations to his body” to prevent him from sleeping, law enforcement officials said.

Only a month ago, the gunman, Aaron Alexis, 34, was suffering from hallucinations so severe that he called the Newport Police Department in Rhode Island where he told officers he was on business.

When officers came to his hotel room on Aug. 7 at 6 a.m., Mr. Alexis told them that he had gotten into an argument with someone at an airport in Virginia. He said the person he had argued with “had sent three people to follow him and to keep him awake by talking to him and sending vibrations to his body” via a microwave machine, according to a police report.

More:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/washington-navy-yard-shootings.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0


Another arrest in Atlanta in 2008.....
Washington (CNN) -- In the early morning hours of August 10, 2008, Aaron Alexis -- now known as the Washington Navy Yard shooter -- was arrested for disorderly conduct in metro Atlanta. The then-Navy reservist was kicked out of a club for damaging the furnishings and left the place releasing an unrelenting string of profanities even as police officers told him to stop.
He kept cussing and he was taken in, according to a police report.
An angry overreaction, maybe, but one that his military superiors noticed.
Was this just one side of an isolated incident? Or was it a warning sign of someone suffering from trauma dating back to the 9/11 attacks? It was this confrontation along with another arrest in Texas that prompted the Navy to begin proceedings to separate him from the military.
By the time the Navy began to seek a "general discharge" for Alexis, he had eight instances of misconduct on his record, including insubordination, disorderly conduct, unauthorized absences from work, and at least one instance of drunkenness. But in the end, he left the service with an honorable discharge because he had never been convicted and there was a lack of evidence to merit a general discharge, a U.S. defense official said.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/17/us/navy-yard-suspect/?hpt=ju_t2


Gunman at Navy Yard told police in RI last month he heard voices in hotel; Navy was alerted

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/gunman-at-navy-yard-told-police-in-rhode-island-last-month-he-heard-voices-in-hotel-room/2013/09/17/f7248084-1fd0-11e3-9ad0-96244100e647_story.html