It would seem that Aaron Alexis did then have some issues that may have led to him deciding to go on the rampage yesterday. It’s feasible that Alexis probably wasn’t too happy about being discharged from the Navy – as he had served since 2007 and had previously received the national defence service medal and the global war on terrorism medal in his career – and that this could possibly have been his motivation for shooting up the Navy Yard yesterday, although whether he would hold a grudge for two years is debatable. It’s also feasible that there could have been another incident similar to the one that occurred in 2004 which triggered another ‘anger fuelled blackout,’ only this time obviously more serious.
Interestingly though, all former friends and acquaintances of Alexis seem to paint him as ‘a very nice person,’ as a former coworker called Afton Bradley described him. He was also a practicing Buddhist and apparently really into chanting, which makes his actions even crazier because they’re inherently nonviolent in their beliefs. In fairness though it seems like whenever someone commits an atrocity such as this there are dozens of character witnesses who say they never could have suspected they were capable of something like this, so I don’t know how much we can really read into these comments.
The only person who has come forward and said anything negative about Alexis is a former roommate called Oui Suthametewakul who stated that he often carried a gun around with him and complained about being a victim of discrimination, but that despite this he was still ‘a nice guy.’
This information gives us some idea about who Aaron Alexis was and some idea of the possible reasons for his rampage, but the fact that he is now dead means that this will remain speculation and we’ll probably never know the true reason as to why this happened.
It’s also just been reported by NBC news that multiple sources are reporting that Alexis had been treated multiple times for several psychological issues including anger, sleep deprivation and paranoia, and that he had also been treated by the Veterans Administration for ‘hearing voices.’ It seems that he was a troubled man that needed help – and who also probably shouldn’t have had access to the Navy Yard given his prior arrest record and history of psychological problems.
The FBI have stated that they have no real leads of Alexis’ motive at this time as he isn’t a big internet player so they can’t track him through this and have released the poster below to try and obtain more information about him. There is currently no evidence of terrorism though and it seems as though Alexis’ demons were psychological and solely his own. We’ll keep you informed.
☛ More FBI: Old Dirty Bastard’s FBI File
