Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
Washington: Expressing her regret over the shooting carried out by her son at Washington Navy Yard, Cathleen Alexis said she was sorry for the lives lost and glad that her son would no longer harm anyone as he was dead.
Mother of the US Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis, who didn’t want to face camera issued a statement from her home in New York on Thursday saying she had no clue why Aaron committed the act.
"I don`t know why he did what he did, and I`ll never be able to ask him why. Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad," Cathleen Alexis said.
In a quivering voice, she expressed grief over the killings, saying, "To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken".
Aaron Alexis, 34, entered a building inside Washington Navy Yard on Monday morning and shot at people till half an hour resulting in a dozen people being killed.
Her son was killed in a shootout that ended a rampage that lasted more than half an hour.
Even as more details emerge about Aaron Alexis, the FBI remain clueless over the motive behind the shooting.
A federal law enforcement document revealed that Aaron had left an encrypted message on his shotgun that he used inthe massacre.
The cryptic messages read, “Better off this way” and “my elf weapon”.
Aaron Alexis was working as a defence contractor and had been arrested thrice before for misconduct at a club and shooting at neighbour’s car, but he was never convicted.
He was reportedly suffering from mental health issue as he told Rhode Island police recently that he was being followed by someone who was sending “vibrations” into him through his wall and causing sleep deprivation.
The police had then warned the Newport Naval Station about his call. But officers didn`t hear from him again.
By Aug. 25, Alexis had arrived in the Washington area, continuing his work as an information technology employee for a defense-related computer company. He suffered from serious mental problems and was undergoing treatment from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the law enforcement officials.
But Alexis wasn`t stripped of his security clearance, and he kept working.
He had purchased the gun on Saturday, just two days before the shooting from a Virginia shop.
