The FBI is asking the public for help tracing the recent movements of Washington Navy Yard shooting suspect Aaron Alexis, “his contacts and his associates,” said Valerie Parlave, head of the bureau’s Washington field office.
The suspect was positively identified using fingerprints and ID, the Washington FBI Field Office said, asking members of the public for assistance tracking down information about Alexis.
“No piece of information is too small,” said Valerie Parlave, assistant director in charge of the office. “We are looking to learn everything we can about his recent movements, his contacts and associates.”
Authorities said at least 13 people — including the suspect — were killed and about a dozen others were injured in the shooting, which put government buildings on lockdown and sent police SWAT teams rushing to the scene.
It’s unclear whether another gunman also opened fire at the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command — and why the shooting occurred, Washington Mayor Vincent Gray told reporters.
“We’ll continue to seek information about what the motive is. We don’t have any reason at this stage to suspect terrorism,” he said, “but certainly it has not been ruled out.”
Police said one other gunman may be on the loose. Authorities earlier said there could be two gunmen at large, but later said one of them had been cleared.
The other possible suspect described by police — a black male, between 40 and 50, wearing an “olive drab-colored” military-style uniform — has not been ruled out, Gray said.
“We still don’t know all the facts. But we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed,” President Barack Obama said earlier Monday afternoon. “So we are confronting yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.”
Obama called the shooting a “cowardly act” that targeted military and civilians serving their country.
“They know the dangers of serving abroad,” he said, “but today they faced the unimaginable violence that we wouldn’t have expected here at home.”
