Mother of Navy Yard Gunman: ‘My Heart Is Broken’
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Matt McClain/ The Washington Post via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — The mother of Washington Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis says she is heartbroken and doesn’t know what caused her son to go on a shooting rampage Monday that left 12 people dead.
“Our son, Aaron Alexis, has murdered 12 people and wounded several others,” Cathleen Alexis said in a statement from her home in Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday. “His actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims.”
“I don’t know why he did what he did, and I’ll never be able to ask him why,” she said. “Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad. To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken.”
Investigators are similarly baffled and have been searching his car, hotel rooms, laptop and past residences in hopes of finding clues about the motive.
In the days before the shooting Aaron Alexis had suffered an episode of paranoia and delusion.
The FBI is asking that anyone with information on Aaron Alexis call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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