Washington Navy Yard Shooting

[KateH.]

To all those in or near Washington DC, especially those close to the Washington Navy Yard, stay safe and stay strong. My prayers are with you all. May we one day live in a world where we will no longer have to worry about such acts being committed.

[Eva Elisabeth]

I subscribe to this!

[RJNorton]

Well said, Kate. I wish I had the answers.

[BettyO]

I very much agree with the very same sentiments! We all do, more or less - it's a shame that such as this has to happen now. No one can feel very safe anymore.

I know the Navy Yard area very well. It's an up and coming revitalized area with much historic significance. Fort McNair is right "next door."

My heart goes out to all the families who lost loved ones and comrades who lost friends and co-workers.

[L Verge]

A very sad commentary on our times, and it really hit home for me this morning when a member of the Redskins football team was on the morning news. His mother works at the Navy Yard, but was not a victim yesterday. However, she was working at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001. And, he was a student at Virginia Tech on the day of that shooting. If that family doesn't suffer from PTSD, no family should!

[My Name Is Kate]

The news reports are saying the shooter suffered from PTSD brought on by the 911 terrorist attacks. Makes no sense to me why he would want to create some more terrorism of his own. Sounds like maybe people are trying to make excuses for him...

[L Verge]

From what we are hearing now, he was addicted to violent video games and was known to play them as long as sixteen hours straight. Another sad commentary on our culture.

[HerbS]

What Blows me away is that he was getting mental health treatment.How did the Navy miss this one?

[RJNorton]

(09-17-2013 02:56 PM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  Sounds like maybe people are trying to make excuses for him...

Kate, your comment made me think of my teaching career. During that period I had roughly 2,000 parent conferences. Sometimes, when talking about a kid's problems, the parents would blame others and and say, "My child got in with the wrong crowd." There was a pronounced tendency to make excuses. So who exactly was the wrong crowd? Never once in all those conferences did I have a parent admit to me his or her child WAS the wrong crowd.

[brtmchl]

I don't understand how this man could have even been given clearance to work as a contractor on a military base. He was discharged from the Navy in 2011. There has been no explanation as to why he was discharged, but there has been talk of it having to do with a series of violent behavior.

In 2004, he apparently pulled out a gun and shot the tires of a truck in Seattle because he was angry with some workers who he said had mocked him. In 2010, he was arrested when he shot a hole through the floor of an upstairs tenant. It's reported that he had many altercations with this woman over her playing her music too loudly. He later claimed that his weapon accidentaly discharged while he was cleaning it. He was also arrested in GA after being kicked out of a nightclub for destroying pieces of furniture in a rage.

With this series of aggravated violence, his discharge from the Navy, A supposed diagnosis that he suffered from PTSD from being present at Ground Zero at 9-11, I can not fathom the fact that the government and state would issue this man a F.O.I.D card. Somebody dropped the ball.

To go along with his PTSD, it is also reported that he was hearing voices in his head, suffered from sleep disorder and paranoia, was obsessed with violent video games, and obviously suffering from anger management issues.

A friend at the restaurant that he worked with said that he was not happy with America and he felt slighted as a veteran. That he was ready to move away from this country.

This is just another horrible tragedy that makes no sense. To those generating the PTSD ( from the 9-11 terrorist attack) portion of this story, it just doesn't make sense to ME ( I am not a psychologist ) that he would attack in the same manner that a terrorist would attack. What does make sense is his history of violence and his lack of controlling his anger. The fact that his friend said he felt slighted as a verteran leads me to believe he was seeking retribution toward the Navy itself.

My heart goes out to the family members of this cowardly and senseless act.

I am also disgusted by those who are and will use this event politically.

[LincolnMan]

I, too, echo the same sentiments that all have expressed here...