A decorated Navy vet from Queens went on a murderous rampage at the Washington Navy Yard Monday💎, killing at least 12 people and sparking widespread chaos before cops s🃏hot him dead, authorities said.
Aaron Alexis, 34, started his killing spree at 8:20 a🌊.m. — just as employees at the Navy Sea Systems Command building arrived for work — silently stalking the hallways on two floors and shooting sniper-style into the lobby to pick off his terrified victims.
“No wordꦇs. He raised the gun and started firing. He said nothing,’’ Sea Systems executive assistant Todd Brundidge told NBC.
Alexis — a former Navy reservist born in Kew Garden Hills, and with family still living in Brooklyn — had a government contractor access card issued to civilians, and used it to gain entry inᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚto the heavily guarded compound, offi♚cials said. He also had a stolen ID.
Armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle and a shotgun, Alexis took a 🐭guard’s handgun before he spent at least the next half-hour stalking his victims.
As the killer sꦗilently moved through the halls of Build🌠ing 197, panicked workers were heard screaming to each other, “Where is he?! Where is he?!’’
Someone pulled a fire alarm to warn others, and after hearing it, Brundidge and his colleagues ran into the hallway — and came face-to-face☂ with the killer.
“He was down the hall, and he stepped around the corner,’’ Brundidge said, adding the gunman was 🐭dressed all in blue.
“He aimed his gun at us, and he fired two or three shots. We ran down theౠ stairs to get out of the building,’’ Brundidge told CNN. “After we left, there were still shots.”
A co-worker, Terrie🎶 Durham, said the group avoided slaughter by mere inches.
“He aimed high and missed . . . We’re lucky he was far enough awa❀y he was a bad shot,’’ she said.
There were conflicting accounts of casualties. The Navy said 14 people were hurt, but W꧒ashington Mayor Vincent Gray said eight were injured, including three who were sho🎐t.
Navy Capt. M🌃ark Vandroff, 46, s꧃aid he and eight other workers ran to a nearby third-floor conference room and barricaded themselves inside.
“We were all lying on the ground. But when we looked u🥃p, abo💖ut eight feet off the floor, there were bullet holes in the walls,’’ he said.
At one point, the gunman shot sniper-style from a fourth-floor walkway overlooking the lobby🏅, targeting people outside the cafeteria on the first floor🎐.
“It was three gunshots straight in a row — pop, 🐼pop, pop,’’ said Patricia Ward. “Three se𒈔conds later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, so it was like about a total of seven gunshots.”
Navy Cmdr. Tim Jirus s🀅aid he fled into an alley in the back of the building and wound up standing next to another man as two shots were fired at 8:45 a.m.
Jirus told The Post that he turned around to see where the gunf𒊎ire was coming from and, by the time he spun ꧂back around, the man beside him had been fatally shot in the head.
“It’s crazy. You come to work on a Monday, and the next thing yo💎u know, there are people inside your building shooting the people you work with,’’ Jirus said.
On Monday night, officia꧟ls released the names of seven of the slain victims, all civilians: Michael Arnold, 59; Sylvi♔a Frasier, 53; Kathy Gaarde, 62; John Roger Johnson, 73; Frank Kohler, 50; Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46; and Vishnu Pandit, 61.
A neighbor of Kathyꦺ Gaarde in Prince William County, Va., told The Washington Post Monday night that she was the “kindest lady in the world.”
“She just helped make it a good home for her family and worked h🤪ard,” Patrick Bolton said.
The vice president of LMI, a consulting firm where Michael Arnold worked, told the paper he was a ꧃“great American.”
“People liked working with Mike,” said Jeff Bennett. “He was just a sol🔯id, solid citizen.”
Some 2,000 people were still in the naval complex more than 12 hours after the shootings. One worker was found after hiding in a lꦫocker for 11 hours💧.
The wounded 𝓡included DC Metro Police Officer Scott Williams, who took two bullets to the leg, The Washington Post said.
Washington Hospital Cent༒er said it treated the cop and two women and all were expected 🦄to survive.
Authorities did not give details on how Alexis died after being hunted down by hea༺vily armed SWAT-team members, some wearing night-vision goggle𒁏s.
The FBI Monday night said he was tꦚhe lone gunman, despite reports during the day th🌸at a second shooter was being sought.
He had purchased the shotgun he used in Lorton, Va., and was believed to have stayed at the Residence⛎ I🌳nn in Washington, DC, for a few weeks before the attack.
He was identified by his fingerprints, after being found with the ID of former Defense Department worker Ro♑llie Chance.
Alexis had been working for The Experts, a Hewlett-Packard subcontractor🍒, and had security clearance and a government contractor access card tha꧒t allowed him access to the Navy Yard.
He worked on a contract to refresh internal Navy and Marine computer systems around the world. He had finished work for the company in Japan and was being reassigned to a new contract a𝄹t the Navy Yard, The 𝔍Experts CEO Thomas Hoshko said.
Two friends told CNN that Alexiꦛs was recently involved in a money dispute with the fꦐirm.
But Mayor Gray told reporters, “We don’t know what♏ the motive [for the attack] is.”
Additional reporting by Frank Rosario and Lorena Mongelli in DC and Kenneth Garger in NY