Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Gunman in shooting was in Navy Reserves Vol. 122, No. 223 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
Aaron Alexis seems a study in contradictions: a former Navy reservist, a Defense Department contractor, a convert to Buddhism who was taking an online course in aeronautics. But he also had flashes of temper that led to run-ins with police over shootings in Fort Worth, Texas, and Seattle. A profile began to emerge Monday of the man authorities identified as the gunman in a mass shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., that left 13 people dead, including the 34-year-old man. While some neighbors and acquaintances described him as “nice,” his father once told detectives in Seattle that his son had anger management problems related to post-traumatic stress brought on by the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At the time of the shootings, he worked for The Experts, a subcontractor on an HP Enterprise Services contract to refresh equipment used on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet network. His life over the past decade has been checkered. Alexis lived in Seattle in 2004 and 2005, according to public documents. In 2004, Seattle police
September 17, 2013
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said, Alexis was arrested for shooting out the tires of another man’s vehicle in what he later described to detectives as an anger-fueled “blackout.” According to an account on the department’s website, two construction workers had parked their Honda Accord in the driveway of their worksite, next to a home where Alexis was staying. The workers reported seeing a man, later identified by police as Alexis, walk out of the home next to their worksite, pull a gun from his waistband and fire three shots into the rear tires of their Honda before he walked slowly back to his home. When detectives interviewed workers at the construction site, they told police Alexis had stared at construction workers at the job site daily for several weeks prior to the shooting. The owner of the construction business told police he believed Alexis was angry over the parking situation around the site. Police eventually arrested Alexis, searched his home, found a gun and ammunition in his room, and booked him into the King County Jail for malicious mischief. According to the police account, Alexis told detectives he perceived he had been “mocked” by construc-
tion workers the morning of the incident. Alexis also claimed he had an anger-fueled “blackout,” and could not remember firing his gun at the Honda 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.” Then, on May 5, 2007, he enlisted in the Navy reserves, serving through 2011, according to Navy spokeswoman Lt. Megan Shutka. Shutka said he received the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal during his stint in the reserves. Both are medals issued to large numbers of service members who served abroad and in the United States since the 9/11 attacks. Alexis’ last assignment was as aviation electricians mate 3rd class at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Shutka said. It was while he was still in the reserves that a neighbor in Fort Worth reported she had been nearly struck by a bullet shot from his downstairs apartment. In September 2010, Fort Worth police questioned Alexis about the
TUESDAY
neighbor’s report; he admitted to firing his weapon but said he was cleaning his gun when it accidentally discharged. He said he didn’t call the police because he didn’t think the bullet went through to the other apartment. The neighbor told police she was scared of Alexis and felt he fired intentionally because he had complained about her making too much noise. Alexis was arrested on suspicion of discharging a firearm within city limits but Tarrant County district attorney’s spokeswoman Melody McDonald Lanier said the case was not pursued after it was determined the gun discharged accidentally. After leaving the reserves, Alexis worked as a waiter and delivery driver at the Happy Bowl Thai restaurant in White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth, according to Afton Bradley, a former co-worker. The two overlapped for about eight months before Alexis left in May, Bradley said. Having traveled to Thailand, Alexis learned some Thai and could speak to Thai customers in their
AP Photo
This booking photo provided by the Fort Worth Police Department shows Aaron Alexis, arrested in September 2010, on suspicion of discharging a firearm in the city limits. The FBI has identified Alexis, 34, as the gunman in the Monday shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard that left 13 dead, including himself.
Flood weary NM keeps eyes on rivers
See SHOOTING, Page A3
Jill McLaughlin Photo
Joe Hicks stands beside a shed Monday that was moved 20 feet off the ground and slammed against his home when flood waters rushed through his property on Georgia Street off the Relief Route in Roswell.
Officials record 100-year rainfall amounts JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
Last week’s flooding and heavy rainfall that cut a swath of muddy destruction through southeast New
Mexico might have been at least a 50-year event, officials said Monday. The National Weather Service in Albuquerque recorded measurements in Chaves County that even surpassed the 100-year
storm mark. Unprecedented precipitation that poured onto the Arabella region Tuesday flowed down either the Blackwater Draw or California Draw and caused the majority of flooding in
Roswell, said Chaves County Flood Control Superintendent Dick Smith. Rain amounts in those areas reached 8-10 inches. See RAINFALL, Page A3
AP Photo
Gov. Susana Martinez gets a bird's eye view of the city of Las Vegas, N.M., from a Red Cross Blackhawk helicopter during a tour to assess the damage caused by the recent floods.
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — New Mexicans remained on high alert Monday to possible flash flooding as rain was expected to continue during the next few days, adding more runoff to already swollen rivers and streams. The tiny community of Mogollon in southwestern New Mexico was isolated after weekend rains destroyed the paved road leading to it. About 16 residents live permanently in the former mining town nestled in the moun-
Anxious waiting for word of missing in Colo floods Infant victim of abuse died in ABQ last week LYONS, Colo. (AP) — Gerald Guntle dials his sister’s home multiple times a day, desperate to find out if she survived the widespread flooding that shattered the Rocky Mountain foothill town of Lyons, but the phone just rings and rings. “If there was no phone service, I wouldn’t expect to keep getting ringing. That’s what has me scared,” said the Tucson, Ariz., man, whose sister is among hundreds of people listed as
AP Photo
A building housing farm equipment is underwater from flooding on the South Platte River on a farm near Greeley, Colo., on Sunday.
missing in a disaster that is already believed to have killed as many as eight people.
Officials hope the number of missing will drop rapidly as communications are restored and people are evacuated throughout the region, as it did in Larimer and Boulder counties, where some 487 people dropped off missing-persons list over the weekend. See MISSING, Page A3
UN inspectors confirm chemical weapons used in Syria France jumped on evidence in the report — especially the type of rockets, the composition of the sarin agent, and trajectory of the missiles — to declare that President Bashar Assad’s government was responsible. Russia, Syria’s closest ally, called the investigators’ findings “deeply disturbing,” but said it was too early to draw conclusions. The Syri-
TODAY’S FORECAST
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an government’s claims that opposition forces were responsible for the attack “cannot be simply shrugged off,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted. The conclusions represented the first official confirmation by impartial scientific experts that chemical weapons were used in Syria’s civil war, but the inspectors’ limited mandate barred them from identify-
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Careful not to blame either side for a deadly chemical weapon attack, U.N. inspectors reported Monday that rockets loaded with the nerve agent sarin had been fired from an area where Syria’s military has bases, but said the evidence could have been manipulated in the rebel-controlled stricken neighborhoods. The U.S., Britain and
ing who was responsible for the Aug. 21 attack. “This is a war crime,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council when he presented the report. “The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves.” Ban called it “the most
• JEANNE GAROFALO GLENN • PHYLLIS INEZ PIRTLE SMITH
See SYRIA, Page A3
• DONALD S. PENEWIT
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
See FLOODING, Page A3
The 1-month-old baby, who was reported to the media as being in critical condition last Tuesday, in fact died that same day. Attempts to get confirmation from the Roswell Police Department on Wednesday and Thursday met with reports that the case agent had received no notification of the death. The infant’s death and the date of death were confirmed by the Office of the Medical Investigator on Thursday. The OMI said the body was received by them from UNM on Tuesday. In addition, they confirmed that the case for the 1-month-old boy had originated in Roswell, and that the boy was sent to UNM from Eastern New Mexico Medical Center late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
The Public Affairs Office at University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital said it would have been standard operating procedure for the hospital to notify the pertinent investigating agency immediately after the child’s death with any case of suspected child abuse.
The following information was released by the RPD public information liaison office around 12:51 p.m. only after the Daily Record contacted them with the name, date of death and OMI case number: “The infant passed away late last week. The investigation is ongoing.” The RPD has asked that the child’s name be withheld.
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B4 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B5
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2 HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2 NATION ...........A6, A7
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8