<p>They Walk Amongst Us:
A Reprint With An Additional Article On The Parkland Florida Shooting
Originally Published September 26, 2013
Tell me how we miss these people; enough already. Let's start at the beginning: A general
discharge from the Navy indicating eight to ten events of misconduct, a discharge that the system
converted to an honorable discharge, arrested for shooting three bullets into a neighbors
apartment, shot out three of his neighbors tires, admitted he had blackouts that were fueled by
anger, identified by his father as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from involvement in 9-
11 rescue attempts, a sweet and intelligent guy, but very aggressive, identified by a lay person at
the Buddist Temple where he worshiped as someone who might kill himself one day. Well
Aaron Alexis doesn't have to kill himself, somebody did it for him. Security did it at The
Washington Navy Yard. But, not before he went on a rampage and shot and killed 12 people and
injured countless others both physically and emotionally.
They walk amongst us and we don't even know it. But, we do know it! Take a look at the track
record. Not only do we know it we ignore it. Aaron Alexis discharge from the Navy was
commuted from a general discharge to an honorable discharge. He had up to ten counts of
misconduct while in the Navy. Who makes these systemic changes? He was identified by friends
and co-workers as aggressive, had swings in his personality, was potentially bi-polar, carried and
used weapons, and had suicide ideation. Yet, it was reported that he as a civilian information
technology contractor, he worked on the Navy and Marine Corps intranet and was given a
security clearance classified as "secret." He had a bogus common access card and gained
entrance into the yard with a minimum security check. He was deviant and dysfunctional enough
to smuggle weapons into the yard probably because his intranet security clearance gave him the
full blown view of where to hide himself and his weapons. And, oh yes