On September 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis drove into the Navy yard in his rental car. With a plan in mind, he arrived to building 197 with intent to kill every innocent civilian he faced.
At approximately 7:53 am, Alexis arrived in a navy blue Prius. He passed through the gate with a valid base entry pass. Valerie Parlave, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, said the shooter had “legitimate access to the Navy Yard.” He walked into building 197 with a backpack at 8:08 am. After walking in without anyone noticing anything unusual about their morning, Alexis took to a hallway.
In that hallway, he pulled out a Remington 870 shotgun from his backpack. Alexis then stalked around in the hallways going unnoticed. He looked into offices and pointed his gun down stairwells searching for his victims. After killing 12 innocent people and injured four people going on with their work day, officers located him on the third floor of the building and put an end to the shootout.
Alexis’ purpose to do such a thing to innocent people was not clear until the FBI saw the etchings in his gun. The gun read “End to the torment”, “Not what yall say”, “Better off this way”, and “My ELF weapon”. The fourth encryption, the FBI believes, has something to do with the extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves the Navy yard uses.
These waves help them communicate with submarines. Alexis believed that these waves were used to control his mind saying, “Ultra low frequency attack is what I’ve been subject to for the last three months, and to be perfectly honest that is what has driven me to this.”
“I think that is ridiculous. I do not see how that could be an excuse for killing all those people. It’s not right and it;s very sad that all of those people had to die,” said freshman Erin Potter.